Yesterday’s formal dedication of the Victims of Communism Memorial was just about perfect, from the weather to the speeches. A red-haired Russian native sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” (her accent, which rendered “perilous” as “pear-real-liss,” was affecting), adopted children from Russia laid a wreath, and President Bush gave an excellent speech.
Say what you will about Bush, but when circumstances call for a presidential address on a topic such as the horrors of Communism, the guy delivers. The audience received him warmly: He must have felt like he was back in Albania. The speeches from Rep. Rohrabacher and Rep. Lantos also were excellent. Lantos had one of the morning’s best-received lines, when he said “I am so glad that the era of Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Shroeder is now gone.” (We linked to Rorhabacher’s speech yesterday, but the Lantos speech isn’t online–when he gave it, he appeared to deliver it extemporaneously.)
In many ways, the day belonged to Lee Edwards, the Heritage Foundation scholar who worked for 18 years to make the memorial a reality.
There were only two spoilers: A Park Police chopper whose noise occasionally interrupted the proceedings, and today’s incredibly snotty critique of the memorial by Bush-bashing, conservative-hating Philip Kennicott in the Wash Post. (Thankfully, the Post has a separate and respectful news story here.)