Friday, April 04, 2008

John McCain at the Lorraine Motel

While it was nice that McCain humbled himself, in his Memphis stop to honor MLK's death, by admitting that he was wrong to vote against making Martin Luther King Day an official holiday, he doesn't get any points from this viewer. I was made particularly uncomfortable by the images of McCain and his entourage exiting room 308 at the Lorraine Motel (MLK's room was 306) and moving toward the podium to speak. This isn't the best photo, but it's the best I could find after a quick online search:



I understand that the museum/motel was the spot of the memorial and that McCain and crew had to sit somewhere until he spoke, but this reads like blatant co-opting of imagery that is too sacred in the public memory to be used in the political arena. I know that all three candidates invoked King's image today, but this was too "white man's power" for me.

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