OK, Let It Be a White Statue

Newsday ^ | January 17, 2002 | Clarence Page

[sarcasm]

I GUESS ALL that national unity and good feeling that followed the tragedies of Sept. 11 was just too good to last.

A planned memorial to honor the 343 firefighters who died at the World Trade Center has sparked a firestorm of its own.

Let's just say that some people don't like the way it recolors history.

The proposed 19-foot bronze statue is based on the now-famous news photo of three firemen raising an American flag over the rubble at Ground Zero.

[Graewoulf]

"I just don't see the point." If you are a color-blind conservative who believes in reality, then your statement is understandable.

The libs, dems and "the media" are bigoted, and thus prejudge all reality to fit their touchy-feely bias. They do see the point: "How can we lie our way around reality in order to buy votes for the next election?"

[savedbygrace]

Page has eyes, but he can't see. The white firefighters, like the balck firefighters, like the Latino firefighters, were exceedingly willing to risk, even sacrifice, their lives to save the lives of white, black, brown, yellow, and whatever other colors of people who were in grave danger on 9/11. That's the story - that ALL the people in those buildings were equally valuable to the brave who rushed into Harm's Way.

Page doesn't understand the principle of representative. The "white-guys," as Page puts it, in real life, in the real event, were representing all the other firefighters at that moment. The statue memorializing that moment should do the same. Represent.

Also, Page is a maroon.

[goldstategop]

True.... By Clarence Page's reasoning women can't read books by male authors since men can't ever know how women live and vice versa and the same could be said for whites not being able to appreciate works written by a black author and vice versa. Do you see what I'm getting at? If empathy with the human experience can only be felt by people who look like you the dream of human brotherhood would never be realized. Page and today's PC liberals are both idiots and racists.

[airborne]

I just signed. That makes 23,338.(I've been busy with my kids' hockey teams)

[Free Trapper]

I'm surprised they didn't think to change the Flag.They could have gotten a lot of mileage out of that.

[metesky]

Great picture of Tony Curtis!

Seriously, does anyone remember the white twin brothers from Boston about ten years ago? They couldn't pass the firefighters exam, so they claimed to be black and lo and behold they were firemen. Took the city a number of years to catch up with them.

[OldFriend]

Are they trying to suggest that the magnificent Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. is not representative of what Lincoln looked like. Is the great sculpture of Albert Einstein in D.C. not exactly as Einstein looked.......

Sorry, there is NO excuse whatsoever for what those who would divide us tried to do to everyone with their revision of history. At least we are here to see that the TRUTH is represented.

[diefree]

Page's complaint that there are not enough black firemen is nonsense. The test to become a fireman is a civil service test, open to all.

I know someone who worked for Verizon, which had a lot of temporary black workers there. She tried to recruit them for the NYC fire department. Most of them told her that running into fires wasn't their idea of a good job.

[Consort]

Which Clarence Page are we talking about: The Clarence Page that appears on network TV or the Clarence Page that appears on BET? He acts and speaks very differently on BET than he does on the networks.

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

"A lot of the FDNY is indeed nepotistic and racially rewarding."

Perhaps "hereditary" is a better term than "nepotistic." Many firemen are the sons of firemen. It is one of those professions in which the members take such pride, that their children wish to follow in their footsteps. And since the overwhelming majority - perhaps over 90% - are Roman Catholic, they tend to have larger families, hence a constant source of new recruits.

Now with all of this commotion raised about this new memorial, I imagine that fashionable minorities will be even less inclined to apply to join what is being billed (with some truth) as just another uniformed branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

[TEXASPROUD]

The only comment I have about the "white faces" on the Iwo Jima monument is this, I never knew Ira Hayes was white.

[RightOnline]

Oh, give me a big, honkin' break here (not you, sarcasm; the writer of this drivel). Those of us who rebel against the political correctness of the statue vs. its faithfulness to the original photograph are "racist".

Any more, when some drooler like this cries racism, I just hear a collective "yeah yeah yeah..........sell it elsewhere" from the white populace. The boy who cried wolf comes to mind...........and especially when you consider how our society now bends over backward for blacks (can you say "affirmative action", black holidays (MLK's birthday and Kwaanza, for example)).

[Diva Betsy Ross]

These left winged liberals are just choas makers. They enjoy the racial tension. Makes sense to me that white firefighters risk their lives to carry black people out of burning buildings... but serve with them, no way. ( right) With people like author this author around I don't think we wil ever see racial equaity in America. There are too many victims for that.

[kaboom]

My favorite line of all..."Why should black and Latino images be used to mask patterns of discrimination that fire departments have practiced for decades?"

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Mr. Page needs to go back and read his history. Of course, in Mr. Page's world, history gets a re-write every few years.

[The Wizard]

This guy shows how little some blacks have developed.

[Verax]

Bump...excellent point.

[Verax]

By the way...one of those firefighters better be from the "gay" community too!

[Lonman219]

As a firefighter I wouldn't care if the statue was made up of 1 white, 1black and 1 hispanic, as long as that is the make up of the picture as it actually happened. But it wasn't. If historical accuracy isn't important, then the photo of the dead priest from the WTC should be black, or since it doesn't matter, the statue of Paul Revere in Philadelphia should be Black or the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware should be Latino. The fact is, that it does matter. So like they say "let's keep it real!"