Hey kids - remember that famous picture of
the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima? It's one of the
most famous pictures ever taken. It's so famous, in fact,
that in the middle of the death and destruction of September
11, someone stopped panicking long enough to 'reenact' this
famous shot with a few fire fighters hoisting the flag at
ground zero. The three firefighters in the photo -- Dan
McWilliams, George Johnson and Billy Eisengrein, have two
things in common: All three are actual firefighters, and
all three happen to be white.
Now every man, woman, and child in the civilized
world has seen this picture at least three or four hundred
times by now, and nobody's complained, or cried, or thrown
a tantrum on the grounds that this photo has somehow done
them an injustice. No complaints from gays, or Muslims,
or Jews, or animal rights activists. No Jesse Jackson press
conferences (boy - Jesse sure has been quiet since they
busted him using Rainbow-PUSH funds to support his mistress
and illegitimate kid, hasn't he?). For once it seemed we
ALL agreed on something.
Now fast-forward about four months. Most people
have managed to get the CNN I-V out of their arms, finding
new things to obsess about. Most of us are back to the vain,
self-absorbed lifestyles we'd grown accustomed to. And right
on cue came the first wave of 'What Do We Do To Honor Our
Selves This Time Around?' debates. A statue, they decided,
modeled on the three firefighters raising the flag photograph,
is the best way to honor the fallen firefighters.
Now as I mentioned at the beginning of class,
all three of the firefighters in the actual photograph are
of the caucasian persuasion. And as I also mentioned, no
one has had a problem with this yet. Yet. But you didn't
think that would last, did you? Not when there are all sorts
of cool things to do, like voice formal complaints over
the fact that a statue modeled on a photo of three white
guys CONTAINS THREE WHITE GUYS! But that's what happened.
And America being America, whenever someone gets pissed
off, someone else bends over. This time it was the Fire
Department, the makers of the statue, and the property-management
company that owns the department headquarters building and
commissioned the work said 'Hey no problem, we'll just make
one of the guys white, one black, and the other Hispanic.
No one'll even notice.'
But there was one problem with this 'no one
will even notice' assumption: Every single person on earth
has seen the photo and knows there was no black guy or Hispanic
guy. Not to mention the fact that all three of the people
in the photo are alive and well, and quite curious how their
fifteen minutes of fame are going to wind down. So they
bitched about this revisionist style of history being dished
up at headquarters. And America being America - they have
to get their way, also.
And America being America, a logical compromise
was reached: There will be no statue at all.
