Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2002 11:43:54 AM by 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commemorating the event was unveiled at the FDNY's Brooklyn headquarters on Dec. 21, the three white firefighters had been replaced by a more racially diverse trio of unidentified Fire Department staffers.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.