September 14, 2003
Dear Coalition Friends:
Yesterday's Washington Post, Style Section, has this piece about the National Building Museum's awarding its 17th annual Honor Award to the NFL, with a final message: Don't mess with the Mall. Here are some excerpts:
The NFL, an Ineligible Receiver?
Museum Award to League Rankles After Mall Extravaganza
By Linda Hales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 13, 2003; Page C01
Last week the National Football League partied its way into Washington lore with a crassly commercial enterprise on the National Mall. Next week, the National Building Museum will catch the hot football.
On Wednesday night the museum will confer its 17th annual Honor Award on the NFL, perpetrator of the most extravagant misuse of the nation's front lawn in memory.
The Honor Award is intended to salute "the important and positive role" that an institution or individual has on the life of the American city. But it comes too soon for the off-color glow of NFL Kickoff Live 2003 With Pepsi Vanilla to have faded. A museum fact sheet talks up the role of sports facilities in combating urban blight across the country. Let's amend the record by adding tacky giant inflatables, Jumbotrons and crude costume changes inflicted during the $10 million NFL kickoff show. And a $57,000 bill still owed to Metro...
...At the end of the day, the NFL's use of the Capitol dome as a backdrop shows an understanding of the power of architecture. But waving corporate logos in the face of Abe Lincoln wins no points for graphic sensibility. If Tagliabue doesn't have the grace to recuse himself from Wednesday's fete, Washingtonians should vote their consciences -- and use their feet. Mail a check to support the museum, which is one of the city's finest sources of design education. But boycott the dinner.
Civic-minded museum patrons might convene instead at Camden Yards. The Orioles play the Yankees at 7:05 p.m., in the country's most beautiful ballpark.
The important thing is to send a message: Don't mess with the Mall.
Read the entire article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3699-2003Sep12.html
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