This article first published today's headlines, Liu Fufeng Studio, author: Sun Yuliang
It's a real suit! The United States, a strange country, has recently surprised the world with a feat. On National Washington Square, workers are putting up small white flags, each representing a person who has tragically died as a result of COVID-19. According to media reports, when the project is completed, 630,000 flags will be erected on Washington Square.
What a spectacular sight it would be, with 630,000 white flags flying in the wind, 630,000 souls weeping silently, and 630,000 lives lost, seeking justice from the U.S. government in Washington Square, allowing anger to form a silent tsunami and a wild ride. The project, titled "In America: Remembering," was created by Maryland artist Ms. Susan Brennan Forstberg and will be officially exhibited from September 17 to October 3. At that time, visitors will be allowed to write and paint on the flag to commemorate the people they lost during the epidemic.
As of 5 a.m. on September 16, more than 680,000 people in the United States have died of the new crown virus. In other words, the exhibition was 50,000 fewer white flags. But this can't be blamed on Forstenberg, because the death toll is growing so fast that now is not the time to put a conclusion on it. Back in the fall of 2020, when Ms. Fusterberg created the first "In America" exhibition, she planted more than 267,000 white flags and found that the exhibition space was seriously insufficient.
It is said that this "White Flag Exhibition" will be the largest participatory installation exhibition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 40 years! It has to be said that Americans are creative, and in October last year, someone put 20,000 empty chairs in the square, symbolizing the people who died due to the new crown epidemic. Now, the chair has been replaced by a white flag, which is more commemorative, symbolic and denouncing.
Needless to say, I believe that everyone who comes to Washington Square will involuntarily bow their heads in mourning in the face of these 630,000 white flags, and the sound of the wind will even make people a little afraid, suspecting that they must be crying under the Nine Springs. So far, the 680,000 deaths caused by the new crown epidemic have exceeded the number of Americans who died in the 1918 pandemic, and about 675,000 Americans died in the Spanish flu more than a hundred years ago; this number is also far more than the total number of Deaths in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the 9/11 terrorist incident, the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, and the ruthless killers are not the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Iranians, Venezuelans and the number of Americans listed by them" The terrorists on the blacklist are the coronavirus, a microbe that cannot be seen, touched, but can kill people.
Using a white flag as a metaphor for a lost life, this idea is much smarter than an empty chair. White symbolizes purity, mourning, and "surrender." The United States is the world's largest economy, the world's most technologically developed country, the world's best medical facilities, should not have died so many people. If the new crown epidemic is regarded as a natural disaster, then this natural disaster is not irresistible, and the United States is fully capable of "man winning the day", at least to minimize the loss. China's 1.4 billion people, who have died more than 5,000 times due to the covid-19 pandemic, have basically brought the epidemic under control, as evidenced by this. Chinese can do it, why can't americans? The United States only has more than 300 million people, and its land area is similar to that of China, so it is better controlled and better controlled than China. However, in the face of the new crown epidemic, the US government first despised the new crown epidemic, treating the new crown epidemic as a major flu, then anti-science, not wearing masks, illegal gathering, and then discussing the feasibility of "herd immunity" after the epidemic was serious, which was equivalent to "surrender". American virologists, known as the American version of "Zhong Nanshan" Dr. Fauci, have been snubbed, and politicians who are not very knowledgeable about virus prevention have shook their lips and appeared on the scene. From this perspective, the more than 600,000 people who died in the United States are actually the result of government incompetence and stupid malfeasance.
Therefore, this white flag exhibition, in addition to mourning, expresses an angry emotion. Leaders such as presidents and secretaries of state are categorically not responsible for lost lives, governors do not apologize for lost lives, and no official resigns or is removed from office by the government because of poor epidemic prevention. These 600,000 or so people will not be called "martyrs", they will "die in vain", and they will die worthlessly. They are even ridiculed after death because they represent the weak and are victims of the law of the jungle. The weak are not respected, and the lambs eaten by tigers are respected? At best, there was only a little sympathy and regret, but according to the rules, the lamb should have been eaten by the tiger. Living in a country that advocates personal "freedom", you also have to endure the "law of the jungle" full of competition, and your personal immunity has not competed with the invasion of the new crown virus, or failure. This is the logic of the United States and the "mainstream values." The 630,000 white flag is a symbol, not only symbolizing the 630,000 lives that have passed, but also symbolizing that all Americans live under the "white flag", and those who are weak under the "white flag" will lose their lives at any time, and the "strong" United States will not protect them, but can only watch them wait for death.