Tales of a Stone Pilgrim

This would surely be a shabby blog if I didn't talk about the proposals for Reagan's Memorial in DC.
With the brouhaha in DC and around the nation after the ex-prez died, the inevitable din began for his statue or some sort of memorial to grace the Washington Mall. One news account stated that miffed Conservatives complained that the really big monuments always went to liberals like
JFK and FDR and they were outnumbered. Time to rectify that in stone, they said. Time to make a real presence in a place where these things count. And do it quick before the tide of sympathy and Congressional majority shift.
But their chances are slim. First of all, no one who has been dead for fewer than 25 years can get a memorial on the green. Reagan himself singed that limit into law during his presidency. The criterion was set to stop the Mall from becoming crowded with leaders like Fillmore, Harding and Tyler whose fame hardly outlived their own lifetimes.
Next, the three committees that are needed to rule on monuments on the Mall have been turning down similar Reagan proposals since the early nineties.
Meanwhile, several are pushing for the Reagan to join the four greats on Mount Rushmore, but the Dems have been pushing for FDR to join his cousin on that South Dakota site and aren't about to give up without a fight. And, after all, how many faces can one mountain take?
Of course, there are buildings, highways and even mountains named for Ron, and the big player here is Grover Norquist and his Reagan Legacy Project, which seeks to have memorials everywhere in the US. According to his website, Norquist is demanding parity with other great 20th century leaders such as MLK and JFK whose memorials he counts assiduously.
One bizarre memorial (non-sculptural) story- Granada has honored their “liberator” with a postage stamp.