By MARSHA MERCER
At home on their farm in Pennsylvania, Dwight D. “Ike”
Eisenhower and his wife Mamie, like millions of other Americans in the 1960s,
ate their supper on TV trays, watching Walter Cronkite.
Ike painted in oils, practiced his golf swing and read. Mamie devotedly watched soap operas.
With nearly all the original furnishings still in
place, their home tells us that the Eisenhowers had modest tastes and
traditional values. There are many framed family photos and knickknacks Mamie
collected. But there’s no glory wall of pictures of Ike with kings and
potentates, no medals, no political paraphernalia.
Ike was a five-star general, the Supreme Commander of
Allied Forces in Europe in World War II and a two-term president from 1953 to
1961, but he hated self-glorification and showing off.
The Eisenhowers donated their farm adjacent to the
Gettysburg Battlefield to the National Park Service, which opened it to the
public in 1980 as the Eisenhower National Historic Site, a fitting memorial to
the 34th president.
It should be obvious that a memorial to Eisenhower in
the nation’s capital should also reflect his values, but nothing is simple in
Washington.
Congress approved a memorial in 1999, three decades
after Ike’s death, and about $65 million of taxpayers’ money has been spent so
far on a design, Eisenhower Memorial Commission staff and K Street offices, and
other costs. The total pricetag is $142 million.
The first spade of dirt has still not been turned – fortunately.
That means there’s still time to get the memorial right.
On the 125th anniversary of Ike’s birth – he
was born Oct. 14, 1890 – Congress should stand with critics, including the
Eisenhower family, who find the memorial designed by celebrated architect Frank
Gehry too grandiose and expensive.
“I think what the critics want is a memorial that’s
reflective of Ike’s humility and modesty – and that is not Frank Gehry’s
four-acre behemoth,” Bruce Cole, an art historian and a member of the
Eisenhower Memorial Commission appointed by President Obama, said in an
interview.
“I would like to see a fitting and proper memorial,”
Cole said.
I agree, especially after visiting the Eisenhower Farm
a few days ago.
Gehry’s latest design has a seven-story stainless
steel screen or “tapestry” as a backdrop to two sets of bronze sculptures in
front of huge stone blocks, topped by quotations. The location is an urban park
adjacent to the Education Department and other federal office buildings at the
foot of Capitol Hill, off the National Mall.
Because of the design controversy, Congress has not
approved construction money for the memorial since 2012. The Senate Appropriations
Committee, citing “significant unresolved issues,” approved just $1 million for
the project for the next fiscal year, the same as last year. The House Appropriations
Committee zeroed out all funding and urged a “reset,” a new design that meets
the approval of the Eisenhower family.
Ike’s son John S. D. Eisenhower asked in 2012 that the
commission scrap the Gehry design and build instead on Eisenhower Square, “a
green, open space with a simple statue in the middle, and quotations.” He died
in 2013, and Ike’s grandchildren have been lobbying Congress for a more
respectful memorial.
Former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, 92, who was wounded in
World War II, said last month that he will raise $150 million in private funds
to build the memorial.
“This is not being built for the grandchildren,” Dole
told The New York Times. “The voice that hasn’t been listened to is us guys for
whom Ike was our hero, and we’d like to be around for the dedication.”
Only about one million
World War II vets are still with us and fewer Americans every year remember
Ike. Last year, 58,240 people visited the Eisenhower Farm, down from 182,387
visitors in 1981.
Dole raised $170 million for the World War II
Memorial, but Eisenhower Commission member Cole predicts that “it’s going to be
extremely difficult to raise money for the Gehry design, which has been so controversial
and toxic since it was unveiled.”
The Eisenhower Memorial should be appropriate for Ike,
restrained and dignified. It’s time for a reset.
©2015 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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