As Americans, we are a people of great diversity. From the very beginning our country was born out of a wide assortment of races, languages, and classes. We are a melting pot, and these differences ultimately make us unique from the rest of the world. Awareness of this is important, but it should never overshadow our unity.
Recently, the New York City Fire Department moved to erect a memorial of the firefighters who died in the World Trade Center attacks – including blacks and hispanics. To the detriment of historical accuracy, they intended to alter the races of the men in the famous flag-raising photo to achieve their purpose. Although the fire department had good intentions, the proposed changes reveal a more serious problem in our society.
First of all, the politically correct statue idea was offensive to the three men in the picture as well as their families. The photo captured a random act of patriotism by three specific firefighters. While we can conceive of the image as representing the heroism of all the rescue workers; in its most basic form, it is still a historical documentation. This fact alone demands accuracy.
Aside from this technical problem, the statue still would not represent everyone within the fire department. The Fire Department’s spokesman Frank Gribbon in justifying the alterations, stated that “those who died were of all races and all ethnicities.” He goes on to say that the statue would honor “everyone who made the supreme sacrifice.” This, of course, assumes that the fire department was made up of only three races. Sure, these are the most dominant races; but if the aim is to include all races and all ethnicities, they shouldn’t stop short.
The statue would also fail to represent the women firefighters who died beneath the rubble. Furthermore, if Gribbon wanted to honor everyone who gave their lives, he would need to include more than just firefighters. Police officers and even common bystanders should also get some recognition.
The point is that we can never accurately represent all of the colors of humanity in one simple memorial — at least not superficially. By altering the reality depicted in the photo, fire department officials would merely represent our divisions instead of illustrating our common purpose. While it is important to recognize diversity, it is equally important to look beyond the distinctions. If we focus our energy on dividing, we miss the blessings of unity.
To this day, racial tension exists in many parts of the world. In our own country, and even at this University, we can see the problem. As Sarah Hunt pointed out in last Wednesday’s column, our social habits are still very segregated. As long as we keep these differences alive in our hearts, we may not see the great friendships and opportunities before us.
The same could also be said of religious diversity. We have all seen the preachers in Free Speech Ally who bash students for not following their beliefs. As a Christian, it’s disappointing to see other believers focusing on the differences between denominations instead of their common brotherhood in Christ. In Ireland, people often live in fear because of extremists who refuse to look past the differences. In the Middle East, violence continues because Muslims and Jews have not lived up to their common ancestries.
The tragedy of September 11 reminded us that we are more than just different races, religions and ideologies. We are human beings. This is the great travesty of political correctness. In trying only to acknowledge our diversity, we overlook our own humanity.
Fortunately, after many complaints the fire department eventually decided to scrap the idea. Perhaps they should consider making the statue without depicting races. It is only bronze isn’t it? Or maybe they should lose the idea of duplicating the picture altogether. Regardless of which approach they use, they need to find a way to depict our united American spirit and not just our physical appearances.