enduring icon my ass | 2002-09-17 - 5:29 p.m.

By now, todo el mundo has seen that foto of the firemen hoisting the American flag amid the ruins at Ground Zero. Only alguien holed up in Tora Bora or Temptation Island could have missed it. Newsweek just did a cover story on it. It's on postage stamps. I bet the Estado of New York is wishing they could reissue their commemorative quarter just so they could slap that imagen on it.

Anymodo, maybe I'm un poquito jaded post 9-11-02, or maybe I've just seen the foto one too many veces, but cada vez it makes an appearance, I get un poco irritated. It's not the foto's calculated similaridad to that historical foto from Iwo Jima that bothers me, aunque I am harta of all these unsubtle 9-11/ WWII comparisons. It's not the fact that the foto has been flogged even more than the palabra "evildoers."

No, what realmente bothers me, now that I've noticed it, is algo mucho m�s concreto.

Take a look at the foto. What grabs your atenci�n? The two firemen on the derecho, of course. You can almost see the raw power, the guts, the emoci�n coursing through their biceps as they raise the flag al cielo. Their faces are strained with the effort of keeping it together. No cabe duda -- these are heroes of the first order, even if you have a problema with the palabra "hero," like I do.

But espera un minuto -- who's that guy on the left? What exactamente is he doing?

Here in California, at Caltrans, they have a palabra for what the guy on the left is doing. That word is "trabajando" or "working." If you ever visit Los Angeles, you will see a lot of Caltrans guys "working" by the side of the freeway. At Caltrans there appears to be a requisito that freeway workers spend at least three-quarters of their d�a standing around and "working." Es decir, drinking misteriosos substances from their thermoses and gawking at the carros going past.

Call me ingenua, but I am dismayed to think that perhaps the New York firemen also have such a requirement. I mean, I have heard so much about their heroism lately, it has never ocurrido to me that they could be capable of achieving Caltrans levels of inactividad and estupefacci�n. In front of the cameras, no less! And that this estupefacci�n should be crystalized into memoria; that it should be embedded in the one imagen the media insists we haul away with us from the wreckage of 9-11. Ay.

Estado de New York, if you wish to avoid unflattering comparisons between Nueva York's Finest and the so�olientos workers of Caltrans, please don't reissue your commemorative state quarter with that image on it.

** Ed. note**

Perhaps I am being a little hard on the tercera fireman. After all, I was not there. If it had been me at Ground Zero that day, I wouldn't have been anywhere close to standing. I probablemente would have been on the ground, curled into a fetal ball and wishing I was anywhere but near the smoking ruins.

But hijos, that is exactamente why I am not a firefighter.

pride and prejudice - 2004-09-07
wherein I become a Yahoo! Search Result - 2004-06-23
like 9-11 all over again - 2004-06-20
enough said - 2003-02-05
tirar por la calle de en medio - 2003-01-28

newest entry

older entries

contact me

diaryland

�Favor de Sign My Guestbook!

powered by SignMyGuestbook.com

about me -- my profile

design by kjtorres

read other diaries

Diary Rings