I know it's not due to open officially until Friday, but I wonder what people thought about this project. My general feeling is that it's a noble effort, intellectually speaking, but as a practical matter I just don't see a lot of tourists getting all geared up to go to a museum dedicated to, essentially, an abstract idea.

Museumgoers want jet planes and dinosaurs and Monet paintings - am I being unfair here? Are they really going to read the thousands of glass panels etched with the words of the Constitution? (This from the centerfold diagram of the Center in last weekend's Inquirer.)

Independence Mall is like Penn's Landing - every generation or so the powers that be seem to feel the need to make some sort of grand statement about these spaces, but the statement part seems to drown out common sense.

On a mostly unrelated note - have you all noticed that the fountains around City Hall have now been - officially - dyed blue for the 4th? I bet whatever prankster initially colored the Love Park fountain magenta a few weeks back is pretty amused.

I think I'm on the flip side. Honestly I wonder what took so long for someone to decide this needed to happen ... I'm just really glad they decided to do it here and not in Washington - that would just be wrong.

It is the oldest Constitution in the world, we should pay homage. Yes, it's an abstract idea, but look at what has come of it - and what more has yet to come of it. It just further reinforces its brilliance.

For anyone interested, sign up to be a PhillyFriend at http://www.gophila.com/friends and get more info on events going on at the Constitution Center.


RE: The fountains. I don't think that's all that attractive. The natural water color woudl be so much nicer. Yeesh, this one is a little bit much for me.

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[quote="JenniferKronstain"]What about the fact that the entire project was built on slaves quarters ...?

"Washington held eight slaves in the house near the southeast corner of Sixth and Market Streets, including two who escaped: Hercules, his fine chef, and Oney Judge, Martha Washington's personal maid.

Hercules disappeared from Philadelphia, but Judge escaped to New Hampshire. Later, she would say that she made her escape with the help of the city's free black community.

There were slaves toiling on every block around Independence Hall in 1787 when the Constitution was being debated, but there were also important communities of free blacks. The largest lived directly south of the hall, but there was a major enclave on the block where the National Constitution Center sits today."...

I sure hope they acknowledge that fact in their exhibits...


http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...er/6134663.htm

Just to be clear, your entry didn't quote me, though the browser made it seem so ...

That said, some info for all:
Jennifer

-------

BLACK INDEPENDENCE DAY!

JULY 3, 2003, 4:00 P.M. , LIBERTY BELL, (6TH & MARKET)

FREE THE AFRICANS ENSLAVED BY GEORGE WASHINGTON AT AMERICA'S FIRST "WHITE HOUSE"

For more details, call or e-mail ATAC (AVENGING THE ANCESTORS COALITION) at 215/552-8714 or mc@bowserweaver.com.

What ATAC Wants: ATAC (Avenging The Ancestors Coalition) wants a culturally dignified, historically complete, physically dramatic, and timely installed and/or timely presented commemorative project, as well as other permanent memorializing acknowledgments- with substantive and ongoing input from the African American community- to honor primarily the eight Africans who were brutally enslaved by President George Washington at America's first "White House," which was located in Philadelphia near the current Sixth and Market Streets site of the new Liberty Bell pavilion. In addition to honoring those eight, the installation and other acknowledgments are to honor all Africans who contributed mightily to America. Moreover, ATAC wants Independence National Historical Park (INHP) to formally and assertively petition Congress for the total funding necessary for the entire project and acknowledgments. ATAC also wants INHP to incorporate into this project the fundamental story of the indigenous people (i.e., the city's original
inhabitants) as told by historians selected by the indigenous people themselves.

Why ATAC Wants It: ATAC wants the commemorative project and other permanent memorializing acknowledgments because justice demands that. Justice demands that because our ancestors died for America in all of its wars, because our ancestors contributed to America with hundreds of indispensable inventions and discoveries, and because our ancestors had their culture, religion, language, families, homelands, lives, and even status as humans ruthlessly, violently, and viciously stripped from them for three centuries by America (and other European-based slave trading countries) in a manner that no other ethnic group has ever experienced in the entire history of humankind, ATAC also wants that project and other acknowledgments because they are an essential part of the history of the Liberty Bell, which, by the way, did not receive its worldwide acclaim until the anti-slavery forces in the 1830s adopted it as their symbol.

What Is ATAC: ATAC is a broad based coalition of African community activists, elected officials, historians, civic leaders, religious leaders, media personalities, lawyers, businessmen/women, and other tax-paying voters who are the descendants of the victims of the greatest holocaust in the history of humankind. ATAC is the coalition that spearheaded the ongoing letter writing campaign of more than 1,000 letters to INHP and that led the ongoing petition drive of more than 2,000 signatures. ATAC is the coalition that organized more than 700 protesters at the July 3, 2002 Liberty Bell demonstration and provided substantial information to the House Appropriations Committee that helped result in a congressional amendment to the Interior Department budget calling for the "appropriate commemoration" of the aforementioned enslaved Africans. And ATAC is the coalition that has the active support of the Legislative Black Caucus of PA and the Black Elected Officials of Philadelphia.

For more information, contact Michael Coard, Esquire at The Bowser Law Center

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Inquirer - "Frame's Fall Mars Opening"

CNN - "Museum dedication marred by falling stage"

I've been out of town all weekend, with no cable, so I don't have an idea of what the local or national reaction is so far. Hopefully nothing too negative comes of it.

Think of how bad the press could have been:

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE KILLED IN PHILADELPHIA

or, in a Daily News-type format:

PHILLY SNUFFS JUDGE

Something like that. Sheesh.

Aside from the unfortunate incident, how do you think the opening went? Did you go?

Well, I think it depends on which Supreme Court judge it is. If it were Scalia, Thomas or Rehnquist, some of us would be cheering. Very loudly. O'Conner, on the other hand, well...she just needs to retire, no need to die.

Too bad it didn't take out Street. Or Specter. I wouldn't mind Street being replaced before the election, would you? And as for Specter, well...he was one of the chief supporters of the JFK "Magic Bullet" Theory.

In Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963, two women, Jean Hill and Mary Moorman, were standing on the south side of Elm Street in Dealy Plaza, as Kennedy's motorcade passed. They were two of the closest eyewitnesses to President Kennedy when he was struck with the fatal head shot. Jean Hill would later be questioned by Warren Commission attorney Arlen Specter. Hill recalled her encounter with Specter with journalist/author Jim Marrs:

"The FBI took me to Parkland Hospital. I had no idea what I was doing there. They escorted me through a labyrinth of corridors and up to one of the top floors of Parkland. I didn't know where we were. They took me into this little room where I met Arlen Specter. He talked to me for a few minutes, trying to act real friendly, then this woman, a stenographer, came in and sat behind me. He had told me that this interview would be confidential, then I looked around and this woman was taking notes. I reminded him that the discussion was to be private and he told the woman to put down her notebook, which she did. But when I looked around again she was writing. I got mad and told Specter, 'You lied to me. I want this over.' He asked me why I wouldn't come to Washington, and I said, 'Because I want to stay alive.' He asked why I would think that I was in danger and I replied, 'Well, if they can kill the President, they can certainly get me!' He replied that they already had the man that did it and I told him, 'No, you don't!'

"He kept trying to get me to change my story, particularly regarding the number of shots. He said I had been told how many shots there were and I figured he was talking about what the Secret Service told me right after the assassination. His inflection and attitude was that I knew what I was supposed to be saying, why wouldn't I just say it. I asked him, 'Look, do you want the truth or just what you want me to say?' He said he wanted the truth, so I said, 'The truth is that I heard between four and six shots.' I told him, 'I'm not going to lie for you.' So he starts talking off the record. He told me about my life, my family, and even mentioned that my marriage was in trouble. I said, 'What's the point of interviewing me if you already know everything about me?' He got angrier and finally told me, 'Look, we can even make you look as crazy as Marguerite Oswald and everybody knows how crazy she is. We could have you put in a mental institution if you don't cooperate with us.' I knew he was trying to intimidate me....

"He finally gave me his word that the interview would not be published unless I approved what was written. But they never gave me the chance to read it or approve it. When I finally read my testimony as published by the Warren Commission, I knew it was a fabrication from the first line. After that ordeal at Parkland Hospital, they wrote that my deposition was taken at the U.S. attorney's office in the Post Office Building."



He also helped trash Anita Hill to get Thomas onto the Supreme Court.

In her book, Speaking Truth to Power, Anita Hill relates her experience with Arlen Specter during the Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Thomas:

"Specter began by assuring me that he was simply trying 'to find out what happened.' Nevertheless, in short order, any hope that Senator Specter would transcend the political was dashed. He began his questioning with an unmistakably prosecutorial tone. He used a familiar cross-examination tactic--a tactic common in sexual harassment cases. He ridiculed my reaction to Thomas' behavior, suggesting that I was being oversensitive, even to the point of misrepresenting my testimony....

"The tension between Senator Specter and me was measurable. The process seemed to break down completely. Senator Specter would repeat the same questions until he got the answer he wanted.... To the press and spectators, we must have sounded silly and ill tempered. More than one sigh erupted from the seats behind me as Specter returned to the questioning and I once more gave my explanation. Clearly, neither of us would budge from our position.

"Something in the back of my head said, 'Just say what he wants you say and get on with it.' But I was much too stubborn to do that. And the more he pursued it, the more inclined I was to resist. Digging in was, perhaps, for me one way of hanging on to some amount of my dignity. By now I knew that his questions were both insincere and ill informed. Though I tried to answer him, I was equally determined that the senator not put words in my mouth.

"With every question he asked, it became clearer that despite any declaration to the contrary, he viewed me as an adversary. Rather than seeking to elicit information, his questioning sought to elicit a conclusion that he had reached before the hearing began."

'Nuff said.

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Ladies and gentlemen,

Please do try to keep your comments related to the thread at hand. A number of folks have been guilty of posting off topic and there is really no reason for this. If you want to take a discussion in a new direction, post a new thread. There are plenty of places to do so. In the future, posts that are blatantly off-topic will be edited and moved to a new thread or deleted entirely. Please do try to keep on topic and refrain from any personal attacks!

Dig, if you could edit your post it would be much appreciated. Please feel free to move it to a new thread!!!

Getting back on topic, I noticed that the vendor that was responsible for the scenery that fell issued an apology. What kind of an impact do you think that scene had on the city and our image?