Colleagues:
We write about an urgent issue. Please read this and
take action as soon as possible.
Last week, the Washington Post reported a new
controversy over the FDR Memorial. According to the
Post's story, the federal Commission of Fine Arts is
split over the acceptability of sculptor Robert
Graham's representation of FDR's wheelchair. In fact,
if the account accurately describes the design, Graham
will depict exactly the wheelchair Roosevelt designed
for himself. The wheelchair is entirely appropriate.
It is the statue of FDR in a wheelchair that the
disability community demanded.
The real problem is the lone quotation selected as an
inscription to accompany the statue. The National
Park Service had asked a committee of five scholars to
recommend quotations for this new "room" in the FDR
Memorial. The committee recommended the following
statement by FDR himself:
"'We know that equality of individual ability has
never existed and never will, but we do insist that
equality of opportunity still must be sought."
Last February, the committee asked us - Simi Linton
and Paul Longmore - if we would endorse its
memorandum to the NPS. We each independently wrote
back that we strongly supported the FDR quote above.
Paul Longmore wrote that the quote "focuses exactly in
the way the memorial should on how we need to teach
American citizens to think about disability and people
with disabilities. This public historical monument
should make disability a matter of civic justice,
rather than of personal coping."
But both of us also regretfully concluded that we
could not endorse the memo because, though the
committee favored this quotation, it also offered NPS
several other quotes as alternative options. Those
quotes we could not support as possible inscriptions.
One of them was the following statement by Eleanor
Roosevelt:
"'Franklin's illness. . . gave him strength and
courage he had not had before. He had to think out
the fundamentals of living and learn the greatest of
all lessons -- infinite patience and never-ending
persistence."
Paul Longmore wrote that that quotation (and two
others) "reinforce the typical view that disability is
mainly a private issue of physical struggle,
psychological adjustment, and personal character."
Neither of us wanted to give the superintendent (or
whoever would decide) the impression that we
considered the first quote from FDR and this one (or
any of the others) equally appropriate alternatives.
Given our concerns, we explained that we could not
sign on to this memorandum.
We have just learned that the National Park Service
and Lawrence Halprin, the designer of the memorial,
have rejected the first quote and have chosen the one
from Eleanor Roosevelt. In other words, just as we
feared, just as we warned, the room depicting FDR's
disability will focus on "Franklin's illness."
It is an affront for the Park Service and the designer
to pass over the most highly recommended quote. Mr.
Halprin initially resisted the call of our community
for a depiction of FDR's disability. He now asserts,
in effect, that having a nondisabled person speak for
a disabled person is preferable to having that
disabled person speak for himself. It was entirely
predictable that people who have such limited
understanding of the historical experience of people
with disabilities would favor a quote that
medicalizes, psychologizes, individualizes, and
privatizes what we all have been trying
to make a matter of civil rights.
We urge you to contact the National Park Service. It
was our activism that compelled the addition to the
monument. Our letters will now get NPS to complete a
monument in which we can take pride. You can express
your opinion to the National Park Service by
contacting:
Robert Stanton
Director
National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: (202) 208-6843
National Capital Region
Terry Carlstrom
Regional Director
National Park Service
1100 Ohio Dr., SW
Washington D.C. 20242
Phone: (202) 619-7256
Fax: (202) 619-7220
Yours in solidarity,
Paul Longmore and Simi Linton
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Simi Linton
[log in to unmask]
212 580 9280 (phone and fax)
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