[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 41 (Thursday, April 2, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              DEFENSE OF IWO JIMA GAINS UNEXPECTED SUPPORT

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                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 1, 1998

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, an article in today's Saratogian, a 
newspaper that reaches some of my constituents in Saratoga County, New 
York, eloquently expressed the intense pride our courageous veterans, 
who put their lives in harms way for this great nation and all it 
stands for, have for the Iwo Jima Memorial. That monument has come to 
represent so much to so many people around this country and the world, 
and in many ways is one of the most famous monuments in our history. 
This article's author, David Rossie, has repeatedly made disparaging 
remarks about me. Yet, even he, who is embarrassed to agree with me, 
has endorsed my attempts to defend the importance and significance of 
the Iwo Jima Memorial. This just demonstrates how offensive J. Carter 
Brown has been to every American across the political spectrum.

                  [From the Saratogian, Apr. 1, 1998]

       Arts Commission Leader Shows Elitism With `Kitsch' Remark

                           (By David Rossie)

       I have never met J. Carter Brown, chairman of the U.S. 
     Commission of the Fine Arts. Chances are I never will. 
     Probably just as well. For openers, I'm a bit leery of people 
     who insist on being referred to by their first initial and 
     middle name. They tend to be a bit pretentious. But the main 
     reason I detest J. Carter Brown, sight unseen, is that he has 
     put me somewhere I don't want to be--on the side of Rep. 
     Gerald Solomon, (R.-N.Y.)
       Solomon is an East Coast version of Bob Dornan, a 
     Republican clown who was ousted from the House in 1996. 
     Solomon is an embarrassment in a legislative body that is 
     virtually embarrassment proof. But now, thanks to J. Carter, 
     I find myself muttering, ``Go get him, Gerald.'' Solomon 
     wants J. Carter booted from the Art Commission because of 
     disparaging remarks he made about the Iwo Jima Memorial in 
     Arlington, Va. The monument is a sculpted bronze reproduction 
     of Joe Rosenthal's photograph of Marines raising the U.S. 
     flag atop Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945.
       J. Carter thinks the memorial is, to use the term 
     attributed to him by the Associated Press, ``kitsch.'' My 
     dictionary describes kitsch as ``artistic material of low 
     quality'' meant ``to appeal to popular taste and marked by 
     sentimentality, sensationalism and slickness.'' J. Carter, 
     former director of the National Gallery of Art, didn't say 
     why he thinks the Iwo Jima memorial is kitsch.
       A little background: On the morning of Feb. 23, 1945, Lt. 
     Harold Schrier, 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, led a platoon to 
     the crater atop Suribachi where the Marines raised a small 
     flag that Schrier's battalion commander, Lt. Col. Chandler 
     Johnson had given him hours earlier. The flag, attached to a 
     piece of metal pipe, went up about 10:30 a.m. Sgt. Louis 
     Lowery, a Marine photographer, captured the moment on 
     film. The ceremony, such as it was, was interrupted by a 
     small group of Japanese defenders, who began throwing hand 
     grenades from a nearby cave. Perhaps they were art 
     critics, with an aversion to kitsch. Who knows? In any 
     event, Lowery was knocked about 50 feet down the side of 
     the crater. He was unhurt, but his camera was broken. 
     Three hours later, the first flag was replaced by a larger 
     one brought from a ship lying offshore. This time the 
     raising was captured on film by Rosenthal, an AP 
     photographer.
       The guess here is that when Rosenthal's photo of the flag 
     raising made it into newspapers in the United States, people 
     found it inspiring.
       I suspect they saw the picture as a metaphor for the 
     unconquerable spirit of the young men fighting in the 
     Pacific. Fighting and dying. Two of the Marines who first 
     raised the flag, died before the island was secured more than 
     a month after the picture was taken. So, too, did Col. 
     Johnson.
       When the fighting ended on Iwo Jima near the end of March, 
     more than 6,800 members of the invading force were dead or 
     missing and 18,000 had been wounded. Twenty-six Marines were 
     awarded the Medal of Honor. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. 
     Chester Nimitz said after the battle: ``Among the Americans 
     who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common 
     virtue.'' But then Nimitz was just an old sentimentalist.
       What J. Carter doesn't seem to understand is that the Iwo 
     Jima memorial isn't just about Iwo Jima. It is a memorial to 
     every Marine, living and dead, who fought on all those 
     islands in the Pacific against an enemy who seldom 
     surrendered and was fanatical in his bravery.

     

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