To the editor:

Though I seldom agree with Charles Krauthammer on politics, I think he gave an apt assessment of the significance of the newly opened Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. (Journal-World, Aug. 30)

My view of the work would differ in only two areas: First of all, made in China by a Chinese artist would seem to make it more, not less, American considering our current balance of trade situation with China. We should also remember that Chinese workers built the western half of the Trans-America Railroad before settling on the West Coast and melding into the general population. The Chinese choice also would seem to be perfectly consistent with Dr. King’s tenet of transcending race and nation to develop a worldview.

The second point of difference has more to do with an oversight on the part of Krauthammer and other critics of the project than anything else. It seems to me that the single most unique and stunningly appropriate aspect of the work is the fact that it appears to be unfinished just as the work that was begun by Dr. King remains unfinished. As a nation and as individual Americans we are reminded that rising above the prejudices and hatred taught and inherited from previous generations remains a work in progress.