Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Give me a break

Bush edits tapes of MLK speech. Recommend this diary if you use Kos. I clicked on the Common Dreams link and couldn't believe my eyes.
Arguing that the Bush Administration is illegally withholding documents on its plans to cut scenes of gay rights, pro-choice and anti-war demonstrations from an educational video shown at the Lincoln Memorial, People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit in federal court today to force the National Park Service to release the documents.[...]

These far-right organizations reportedly complained that brief seconds of footage showing gay rights, pro-choice and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations implied that “Lincoln would have supported homosexual and abortion ‘rights’ as well as feminism.” In response, the Park Service is reported to have promised to develop a “more balanced” version of the videotape that has been playing at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995.[...]

The Park Service has reportedly spent nearly $200,000 making two new versions of the video. The first version is a wholly new video that, according to other Park Service documents, “revise(s) and update(s) the Lincoln Memorial video [including] off-line and symphony picture editing, the acquisition and addition of commercial and public domain stock footage and specialized captioning.”

This June, a second version of the video was ordered. This version would make “three minor picture changes to the Lincoln’s Living Legacy Video. This work includes purchasing new stock footage, edit [sic], mastering and captions for the video.”

“We are simply trying to unearth the history of an attempt by the Bush Administration to rewrite history,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization represents Park Service employees. “Our tax dollars are being spent so that images of feminists, war protestors and gays can no longer be glimpsed at what is supposed to be a shrine of democracy.”

Throughout the controversy, the original videotape has been showing at the Lincoln Memorial, except for a brief shutdown for projector repair. The Park Service has not shown its proposed replacement videos to members of the public and has also resisted requests for copies to be released.
President Lincoln would indeed be a Democrat in today's age. He was a Kentuckian and Kentuckians should know better (those of us who are still blue and voting blue. I think a reason why Democratss in Kentucky have been going red is because of the ethical problems that Democrats have shown lately.

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