LIVity

I was listening to Russ Parr's morning radio show this morning and happened to tune into an interesting interview. U.S. Marine's Sgt. Jason L. Thomas was recounting his experiences at Ground Zero on that fateful day five years ago. Although the American public has not heard much about this brave, black man, he is a hero. His story was told in "World Trade Center," the movie that was recently released. The catch is, his character was cast as a white man. I'm torn by this little-known fact just as Parr and his morning crew were. They were emphasizing the fact that Sgt. Thomas' ethnicity should have been a well known fact because the movie was created by one of the victim's he rescued. They also were concerned with the fact that this movie may become the official "transcript" of what happened and it should be correct in every way. Sgt. Thomas was being very patriotic and kept asserting that this was a travisty for all of America and he thinks the movie should still be seen. I applaud Sgt. Thomas for his humility but urge him to recognize that this is bigger than him. This goes back to the thinking that victors get the final say on what gets recorded in history. Unfortunately, we're all American and supposed to be standing united. Why, even in a time a tragedy, are we letting something like race divide us? When those planes hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, they didn't discriminate. So, I guess we have another incident of depriving our children of their history. We can add Sgt. Thomas' name to those like Garrett A. Morgan and other important African Americans who are never recognized but whose contributions to this country were life-changing.