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| June 11, 2010 |
| Empire State Building Goes Yellow |
| By Greg Hazley |
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What is up with the Empire State Building these days?
Once again New York's tallest building, the perennial tourist draw and iconic skyline silhouette has dissed Mother Teresa and the U.S. Marine Corps. after both requested that the building's lights pay tribute.
 "We were rejected," Gunnery Sgt. Alex Kitsakos of the Marines' public affairs office in midtown Manhattan told the Daily News today after the Marines asked for the building to be lit scarlet and gold in 2008 on the Marines' Nov. 10 birthday.
The colored lights have honored celebrities, sports teams, holidays, magazines, countries and causes but its owner, developer Anthony Malkin, says it won't pay tribute the religious figures or organizations.
Organizations? June 11-13 saw the building pay lighted tribute in blue, green and yellow to the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
A push to honor Mother Teresa's 100th birthday with blue and white lights was recently turned down, while the Marines (scarlet and gold) were snubbed in 2008.
On June 28th, the lights will pay tribue the Crain's New York Business in blue and white for its 25th anniversary. That follows the June 4-6 nod to the New York Racing Association (green/white) and a 10th anniversary fete for iMentor, a tech-savvy mentoring organization (orange/white).
The Rainforest Foundation got a green-light tribute last month and the ESB honored the Neuropathy Association on May 20 with orange, purple and white lights.
Malkin missed a golden opportunity to make things right with the Marines last week during Fleet Week. But it's never too late to light up a tribute.
And while he's at it, maybe he could dust off the blue and white bulbs he's using to honor Crain's and tip the cap to Mother Teresa, whose life's work ministering to the poor, abandoned and sick transcended her Catholicism.
After all, the March 17 green-on-green display for St. Patrick's Day honors a Catholic saint who drove the snakes out Ireland.
The Catholic League points out that when John Cardinal O'Connor died in 2000, the building was lighted in red and white. In 2005, when Pope John Paul II died, the tower lights were turned off, and later that year yellow, red and blue lights paid tribute to the 125th anniversary of the Salvation Army, a Christian evangelical organization.
Snubbing Mother Teresa, by comparison, is just yellow.
(Image: After School Alliance) |
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