thedrifter
06-11-04, 09:12 AM
Statue insults women, senator says
Albany -- Nancy Larraine Hoffman seeks change to veterans memorial
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau
First published: Wednesday, June 9, 2004
State Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann, who is facing an unusually tough primary challenge in her Central New York district, on Tuesday reignited a controversy over whether part of the state's Women Veterans War Memorial is inappropriate.
Joined by two female Marine Corps veterans, Hoffmann stood before the memorial just west of the State Museum on Madison Avenue and said it looks "like an ad for Victoria's Secret and does a grave disservice to women who have served in past wars and those women who are risking their lives today."
At issue is a 9-foot statue, designed by former Times Union cartoonist Hy Rosen, that is the central focus of the memorial. State officials say she is meant to depict Lady Liberty. The woman is wearing a draped dress and sandals. Her arms arch upward and one hand holds the New York state flag. The inscription beneath her feet reads: "Pride. Courage. Honor."
"A lady draped in a lovely chiffon scarf does not represent military women," said Margaret Bandy, an Onondaga resident and Marine Corps veteran who was honored Tuesday as a New York State Senate Woman of Distinction.
"When I saw the memorial, I thought: 'Throw some cammies on her and make her look like a real military woman,' " Bandy said.
June Worden, president of the Central New York State Chapter of the Woman Marines Association, agreed and added: "Something should be done here that's more representative of what we've done in the military."
The women said they have no problem with the smaller panels that flank Lady Liberty. One shows a Revolutionary-War era scene of women standing in the field, wearing dresses and loading muskets. The other is a more modern montage that centers around a woman wearing fatigues and holding a machine gun.
Hoffmann said she has written to Gov. George Pataki and asked him to relocate the Lady Liberty statue and replace her with something more indicative of the danger and sacrifice women soldiers have faced over the years.
Pataki spokeswoman Jennifer Meicht said Tuesday the governor had not yet received Hoffmann's letter, but "will certainly review it" when he does.
This is not the first time the issue of Lady Liberty has been aired. Both Bandy and Hoffmann had similar criticisms when the roughly $300,000 taxpayer-funded memorial was unveiled in 1998. Hoffmann on Tuesday said she believed now was a good time to revisit the issue because Bandy was being honored by the Senate.
The memorial design was selected by an independent advisory committee that included seven women veterans representing various military branches, according to state Office of General Services spokeswoman Jennifer Morris.
In November 1998, advisory committee member Col. Frances Liberty of East Greenbush called the statue "a beautiful piece of art." She said a woman in military garb was not chosen as the central image of the memorial because the committee wanted something generic that could represent women's service from the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War.
http://www.timesunion.com/shared/graphics/newsdb/040609memorial.jpg
Veterans of World War II question appropriateness of the Women Veterans War Memorial in Albany (Tim Roske / Associated Press)
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=255615&category=CAPITOL&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=6/9/2004
Ellie
Albany -- Nancy Larraine Hoffman seeks change to veterans memorial
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau
First published: Wednesday, June 9, 2004
State Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann, who is facing an unusually tough primary challenge in her Central New York district, on Tuesday reignited a controversy over whether part of the state's Women Veterans War Memorial is inappropriate.
Joined by two female Marine Corps veterans, Hoffmann stood before the memorial just west of the State Museum on Madison Avenue and said it looks "like an ad for Victoria's Secret and does a grave disservice to women who have served in past wars and those women who are risking their lives today."
At issue is a 9-foot statue, designed by former Times Union cartoonist Hy Rosen, that is the central focus of the memorial. State officials say she is meant to depict Lady Liberty. The woman is wearing a draped dress and sandals. Her arms arch upward and one hand holds the New York state flag. The inscription beneath her feet reads: "Pride. Courage. Honor."
"A lady draped in a lovely chiffon scarf does not represent military women," said Margaret Bandy, an Onondaga resident and Marine Corps veteran who was honored Tuesday as a New York State Senate Woman of Distinction.
"When I saw the memorial, I thought: 'Throw some cammies on her and make her look like a real military woman,' " Bandy said.
June Worden, president of the Central New York State Chapter of the Woman Marines Association, agreed and added: "Something should be done here that's more representative of what we've done in the military."
The women said they have no problem with the smaller panels that flank Lady Liberty. One shows a Revolutionary-War era scene of women standing in the field, wearing dresses and loading muskets. The other is a more modern montage that centers around a woman wearing fatigues and holding a machine gun.
Hoffmann said she has written to Gov. George Pataki and asked him to relocate the Lady Liberty statue and replace her with something more indicative of the danger and sacrifice women soldiers have faced over the years.
Pataki spokeswoman Jennifer Meicht said Tuesday the governor had not yet received Hoffmann's letter, but "will certainly review it" when he does.
This is not the first time the issue of Lady Liberty has been aired. Both Bandy and Hoffmann had similar criticisms when the roughly $300,000 taxpayer-funded memorial was unveiled in 1998. Hoffmann on Tuesday said she believed now was a good time to revisit the issue because Bandy was being honored by the Senate.
The memorial design was selected by an independent advisory committee that included seven women veterans representing various military branches, according to state Office of General Services spokeswoman Jennifer Morris.
In November 1998, advisory committee member Col. Frances Liberty of East Greenbush called the statue "a beautiful piece of art." She said a woman in military garb was not chosen as the central image of the memorial because the committee wanted something generic that could represent women's service from the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War.
http://www.timesunion.com/shared/graphics/newsdb/040609memorial.jpg
Veterans of World War II question appropriateness of the Women Veterans War Memorial in Albany (Tim Roske / Associated Press)
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=255615&category=CAPITOL&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=6/9/2004
Ellie