Empire State Building Goes Red

[LightWalker]

The Empire State Building has been lit up red and yellow.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,557823,00.html

 

[Patriot]

Great light display from a flashoholic's point of view. The reason of the lighting though, I would take issue with as I gravitate to the quoted article in the link.




"Historians of the revolution noted the unimaginable — and often forgotten — toll of the revolution and China's communist rule, which has taken tens of millions of lives through years of war, famine, reeducation and wholesale slaughter. "China gets treatment that other dictatorships can only dream of — a free pass on human rights," said Arthur Waldron, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The revolution and its aftermath may have been deadlier than any world war: though estimates vary, research from the historian Chang Jung shows that as many as 72 million people died as a result.
During one five-year period alone, the Great Famine of 1958-1962, 36 million Chinese are believed to have starved as a result of Mao's Great Leap Forward, a government policy meant to industrialize the nation.
During those years of ruin, peasants ate bark, maggots, bird droppings, human flesh — anything to survive — as government storehouses stood full with grain and other cereals, neither the first nor last in China's troubled line of violations of human rights.
"China remains strongly oppressive — but we make a lot of money, and we have a tendency to romanticize the country, confusing her brilliant cultural heritage with the current communist regime," said Waldron. "Will we light it in honor of Tibet?"
About 40 protesters massed outside the Empire State Building Wednesday morning as China's New York consul attended a ceremony the building's managers said was to honor "the 1.3 billion Chinese people and the 60th anniversary of their country."
"Because the Empire State Building is such a cultural icon ... this touches a chord close to home for people," said Lhadon Tethong, a leader of the demonstrators from Students for a Free Tibet.
Tethong said that the lights on the building "are a symbol of support for the Chinese state — for a totalitarian state," which ignores the country's "abominable record on human rights, on liberty."
Waldron, of the University of Pennsylvania, said he thought there would be an outcry if another brutal regime were so honored by the tower.
"Would we have lit the Empire State Building for the USSR knowing what we do about the Gulag?"





This in an era where morals have supposedly "evolved" over tens of thousand of years to a new point of enlightenment, yet we still have the same problems today that we had in the beginning. The only difference is that the number of dead are far greater.

 

[bullfrog]

Politics aside, the empire state building is one of my favorites in this city because of the lights.

Every few nights its some different combo and its just beautiful.

I got very familiar w the lights as this was the view from our livingroom when we lived on East 31st Street (this is my favorite combo - its for the Westminster Dog Show ).

here is a list of the color schedule:

http://www.esbnyc.com/tourism/tourism_lightingschedule.cfm

thanks for sharing.

 

[Beamhead]

I see no problem with the why, after all they are going to line the Great Wall with red, white and blue bunting on 7/4/10.....................not
:sarcasm smiley here:

 

[SFG2Lman]

i think thats be a little too open-minded, this "everyone is a winner PC BS attitude" is starting to get on my nerves.

 

[Empath]

Again, LightWalker, it seems you have misunderstood the purpose of the Cafe.

The Underground even has dedicated forums devoted to headlines that genarate conflict or strong feelings. Please take the topic there. Thread closed.