Altering the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial

Regarding the Feb. 11 Metro article “Park Service to amend words set in stone”:

Really? Shave off 5 inches of stone and start over, maybe destroying the entire sculpture? Why not add words before those already there? Something like: “If you need to compare me to a drum major, say [I was a drum major for . . .].” The original meaning would be restored, and the statue would remain intact.

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Roger Mingo, Washington

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The Feb. 13 editorial “The ‘drum major’ in context” asserted that the plan to quote Martin Luther King Jr. verbatim on his memorial solves the problem of taking his “drum major” quote out of context. The sad truth is that we are the verge of botching this a second time. The real problem: the “drum major” riff is snoringly forgettable even in full.

The memorial desperately needs this simple inscription — “I have a dream.” King never said anything more powerful or emblematic. Leaving those words off makes the towering King bust seem uncharacteristically mute.

Gerald Parshall, McLean

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Now that the National Park Service has decided to amend the abbreviated inscription on the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, it should remove the artist’s signature found in surprisingly large letters at the bottom of the stature, right below King’s left foot. I have visited all the memorials and monuments on the Mall and found no other sculpture signed by the artist. Why should this one be? The King memorial is supposed to honor the great civil rights leader, not the sculptor involved in the memorial’s construction.  

Donald Rotunda, Washington