Something That Still Steams Me

It's been 32 years since this pic was snapped on Boston's City Hall Plaza. Adam over at Universal Hub just dredged it all up again. Geez, thanks buddy!

As I said over at Adam's place: "A picture might be worth a thousand words, but what does it help if they are the wrong words? The pic is sensational, but it wasn't photojournalism. You really don't get the true story. It shocks, it does not inform. Being from Charlestown, I always knew the villians here were liberal politicians moving about poor whites and poor blacks, like pawns in a game. Especially Ted Kennedy who thought he could ride his brothers' names past any criticism. This pic isn't photojournalism. It is misleading. It's sensational, it does not inform."
Judge for yourself At first glance, what most people see is a young white man preparing to impale a black man with a US flag, while another white man holds the black man in place.

Shocking? Of course. True? Not hardly.

First and foremost, the kid holding the flag, is an asshat. However, witnesses observed him to be swinging the flag back and forth in front of him in an arc. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong to do that with anything, much less an American flag. However, he is not preparing to spear Mr. Landsmark.

Also, the man behind Mr. Landsmark was Jimmy Kelly from South Boston. He is not holding Mr. Landsmark, he is pulling him from harm's way. Kelly later went on to become a Boston City Councilor and served the people of his district, South Boston with everything in him.

One of Adam's commenters added a link to an article in US News & World Reports. So you know this is the real gouge and not just a Townie girl white-washing history.

Why is this being brought up again now? Well it seems that someone has written a book about the pic. A whole book? Well, whatever, you know I have to read it, it's about Boston and I am a Bostonian.