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.

[Flint]

" I wonder how overjoyed he'd be if we altered all of the Tuscogee airmen and the buffalo soldier images and replaced them with a single massive multicolored group including whites?

Well, now that you mention it. The officers in both units were white. Why aren't whites portrayed in the monuments you speak of. After all they were very much a part of the units and made great sacrifices in their personal and military life to serve in negro units.

[Chad Fairbanks]

The white faces on that re-creation of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima have always reminded some of us of how far we Americans have come from the segregated military of those days.

The ignorance of some people is amazing - one of the guys in the Iwo Jima Flag Raising (and on the statue) is an American Indian...

[BunnySlippers]

Why should black and Latino images be used to mask patterns of discrimination that fire departments have practiced for decades?

The author of this piece sucks.

[Chad Fairbanks]

As a matter of fact as I understand it, the largest mass hanging was of 9 Irishmen in Boston!!

Are you speaking of legal hangings, or lynchings? IIRC, there was a mass hanging out west, where a heck of a lot more than 9 were hanged at the same time. I thought it was about 50, but I could be wrong - there's some photograph out there of the event. I'll have to see if I can find it... ;0)

[gunnedah]

Your magazines name should be changed to "The Politically Correct". In the next 50 years students will not be able to search for the truth in anything.Our schools have changed so many facts in the last 40 years there is no way to tell what the truth is. Just like the statue doesnt portray the truth it portrays diversity.What the Hell, the truth never mattered in the past 40 years anyway? Lets all go read Alice in Wonderland now children.

[PJ-Comix]

One of the "white" faces on the Iwo Jima memorial belongs to a Native American.

And in one of the most bizarre casting decisions, Tony Curtis played his part in a movie. Tony Curtis playing a Pima Indian? Go figure!

[azhenfud]

A term I learned recently: BTTT.
Az

[rwfromkansas]

For Pete's sake, DON'T ever....ever....ever...ever put that puke Clarence Page on this site....this needs a monstrous barf alert.

[ikanakattara]

If you're looking at a statue, how can you even TELL if someone is Hispanic or not?

[okiedust]

Me too, johnny, there is commemorative art, and there is interpretive art. I mean if a little dog was a Scottie, and a customer wants to have you do a bronze to memorialise him you don't do a Springer cause you like them better. I mean if its about George Washington, you don't put someone else on his horse. In my opinion this statue is commemorative, not interpetive. Should be just like it happened. Too bad that Mr. Page got his facts wrong. I wonder if he will issue a correction to his column.

regards

[Nitro]

I was talking city, but of course I could be wrong!

My point is, my people have been hung and I don't like it either!!

But since I am a white man, I get no traction!!

I was told as an Irish child, there was a time when you couldn't wake up in the morning without finding a dead Irish hanging from a lightpole!!

[4CJ]

Wasn't it just a few years ago that blacks (and many whites) were up in arms because a picture of a black man had been distorted? And they ranted and railed about changing it was racist? They demanded that it be historically accurate.

If I remember right that picture was none other than O. J. Simpson.

[NittanyLion]

If you're looking at a statue, how can you even TELL if someone is Hispanic or not?

As someone mentioned yesterday, you tell because the sculptor plays on racial stereotypes when creating the statue. The hispanic and black FFs on the statue would likely bear "typical" features, which would usually enrage a liberal if mentioned. In this case, of course, it's all good.

[Free Trapper]

Maybe we should have some white MLK statues around.For diversity.HeHe.

[TomSmedley]

An all-white fire department memorial can remind us of how far we still have to go.

Fire fighting is hard, dirty, demanding work that requires continual training. It is also an adrenhiline rush to jump into your turnout gear and on board the apparatus, heading off to adventure to the music of screaming sirens. The excitement of this activity, blended with the sense of approval that goes with volunteerism, keeps people doing it year after year, for free.

Yet the majority of fire fighters are white. Something about the white culture nurtures and reinforces heroism. Think about it.

[RaceBannon]

Still, there's no rule that says a statue has to be an exact replica, even when it is based on a well-known photo.

Ok, REGISTERED, Here is a task! Make a white man, standing in front of a crowd, calling on America, saying

I HAVE A DREAM, WHERE EBLACK CHILDREN AND WHITE CHILDREN WILL BE JUDGED BY THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER INSTED OF THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN...I HAVE A DREAM...

[Free Trapper]

Will Jesse be white too?

[Chad Fairbanks]

Oh, I know what you mean - every "Race" has been the "victims" of some type of tyranny and/or atrocities at some point in their history. Most "races", however, usually seem to get over it eventually, except for those "races" which have a large number of Race Hustlers who, to be honest, would rather stand around and bitch and moan instead of actually doing something positive. My people were persecuted, hunted, ensalved, and such in the past. However, I also recognize that my people did the very same things to others at one time or another.

I'm proud to be an American Indian, but I'm even MORE proud to be an American. This is why I prefer the term "American Indian" over "Native American", because IMHO "American" should come first. Maybe when other "races" start feeling the same way, I might actually begin to give a s**t about them.

;0)