White Firefighters Who Raised Flag at WTC depicted "racially diverse" in New Statue

Newsmax ^ | 1/8/02

[narby]

Racial Changes Made in Ground Zero Firefighter Tribute

It happened more than two weeks ago, but at least one New York City firefighter is still steaming over the politically correct changes made to a sculpted tribute to the firefighter heroes who raised the American flag at Ground Zero just hours after the World Trade Center was leveled on 9/11.

The three flag-raising fireman, as depicted in a widely publicized photograph taken by New Jersey's Bergen Record, were white.

But when a statue commemorating the event was unveiled at the FDNY's Brooklyn headquarters on Dec. 21, the three white firefighters had been replaced by a more racially diverse trio of unidentified Fire Department staffers.

The $180,000 statue is the first memorial to the 343 firefighters and emergency medical personnel killed Sept. 11, reported Newsday at the time.

The racial modifications came at the behest of Fire Department officials, artists with Studio EIS, located on York Street in the Dumbo section, told the paper.

Our firefighter-reader complained:

"What Firefighters McWilliams, Johnson and Eisengrein did inspired the people of the United States in one of its darkest hours. ... This photograph is as sacred as the famous photograph and sculpture of the U.S. Marines raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. ...

"The 343 firefighters [who] were killed at the WTC (54 of whom I knew personally) consisted of all races and creeds.

"But the fact is that the three firefighters who hoisted the Flag on the afternoon of Sept. 11th at the WTC were white and should be depicted as such."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

[Incorrigible]

located on York Street in the Dumbo section

Where the heck is the "Dumbo" section of NYC???

[bray]

Shouldn't one of them be in a wheelchair??? Pathetic! Which firefighter is going to get the axe??

Pray for GW and the Truth!

[dittomom]

Historical fact can be distorted, history can be rewritten

Outrageous isn't it? And this is RECENT history. History about men who are still alive, for crying out loud. Facts just don't matter, anymore...Who the h#!! decided that minorities would be offended by the truth, but it's OK to offend the actual living heroes and force them to deny their own identities!?!?

[MotleyGirl70]

Included in the title you should have added:

ATTENTION WHITE MALES

It's almost a crime to be a white male.

This is P.C. garbage.

[dead]

Where the heck is the "Dumbo" section of NYC???

I’m not sure, but I’d imagine the Board of Education is located there.

[rdww]

Let's hope that they hurry up and "correct" the Iwo Jima flag raising monument too, so the Marines include a woman, a black, and someone in a wheelchair ;)

[Alouette]

Shouldn't one of them be in a wheelchair???

One of them will be a woman. And the two guys will be hugging each other.

[afz400]

This is how the federal government is working now (even under Bush)- the white does the work while the black "supervises" by going to breakfast, shopping, lunch, taking the kids to school, then files a discrimination suit and gets the awards and a low cost mortgage. Flame me if you want but its the truth that everyone is afraid to talk about. I call it reverse slavery.

[mrtoby]

As I recall, there was a big hue and cry about whether or not to portray President Roosevelt in a wheelchair. In the interest of "portraying history accurately" the wheechair was displayed. Maybe we can get the people that won this one argue again in favor of the real identiy of the firefighters? Somehow, I doubt it!

[KC_Conspirator]

Why do they need to change history?

Because leftist know that it can help you control the future. Remember, communists are the only people who can predict the past!

[is_is]

I bet one of them has a rag on his head.....Geez....got to include everybody.....can't discriminate.....

[hellinahandcart]

Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass = DUMBO

[A Navy Vet]

Speechless.

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

They should have included a woman and an cross-dresser.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Do the marines in the Iwo Jima statue actually look like the real marines? I'm not sure it's even that detailed.

[ScreamingFist]

No agenda here, nope. Move along everbody, nothing to see. Re-writting history to justify PC perceptions. The march of the mediocre left will continue until we're ALL equal, whether we like it or not.

[dead]

Hey thanks! I've never heard of that before.

[staytrue]

so the Marines include a woman, a black, and someone in a wheelchair ;)

You wouldn't happen to be former Reagan interior secretary James Watt would you ? (a black, a woman, two jews and a cripple.)

[Dakmar]

If they were making that Iwo Jima statue today one of the marines would look Japanese.