Well, that wasn't the way I thought my
Saturday morning would go.
Two blog-worthy things occurred before
noon this past Saturday, the first of which I'll write about
tomorrow. The second of which occurred when I was walking home
through downtown Marquette from the first, around 930 or so, and I
saw that someone stole Statue Phil's hat!!
Not only did they steal Statue Phil's
hat, which, as part of the sculpture of the Marquette icon, they
actually had to unscrew and then tear off, but they also stole the
pretty purple scarf that someone had whimsically wrapped around his
neck when it started to get cold out, as well as the plaque that
explained who Phil is and why the statue had been put up. They just
went and took everything, the dirty little, uhm...
And I'll leave out the word I was
thinking of using. After all, I try to keep this family friendly.
I put the pictures up on Facebook and, perhaps not surprisingly, had over 200 shares and a whole
crapload of comments from incensed community members follow shortly
thereafter. I'd like to repeat some of those comments, but in
keeping with the family-friendly nature of this I can't. The one
thing I CAN say, though--
People are pissed. They're really,
really pissed.
For those of you who don't live in
Marquette it's kind of hard to explain just how loved the real-life
Phil Niemisto is. Here's a dude who pays for and plants flowers and
washes windows and helps people out, and who, at the age of 88,
didn't want the statue put up because he thinks that statues are
only for people who are dead. And even though he moves a lot slower
since an accident due to ice last year, he feels he still has a lot
left to do.
I don't think any of us can disagree.
In a way, maybe it's not surprising the
vandalism occurred. After all, the are five bars on the block where
Phil's statue sits. Phil's flowers, which he plants in the same park
that's home to his statue, have been torn up countless times, and
this was the first weekend that NMU students were back for class.
Put all of those together, and maybe it shouldn't be a surprise.
Maybe it's a miracle that the statue, put up back in October, hadn't
been vandalized yet. But what does it say about us as a city or even
us as a society that we should be thankful we had three whole months
with the statue before someone did something to it? Those of us who
contributed to it and those of us who helped push the construction of
it did so because we genuinely care about the person it honors. We
didn't do it hoping that we'd get 90 days out of it.
But thanks to someone's idiocy, be it
induced by alcohol or just a lack of common decency (or both), that's
all that we got.
I ran into Phil yesterday afternoon,
and, sadly, he seemed more resigned to the situation than anything.
It's just not right that someone should take a symbol of a person
who's meant so much to the city and just walk away with a part of it.
I hope that the outcry of the community causes the hat to
mysteriously reappear. I also hope that the outcry of the community
causes whoever took it to realize that there's a line you might not
wanna cross next time you're looking for something stupid to do after
the bar closes.
(ps—if you DO have any information on
the location of Phil's hat contact the Marquette City Police at (906)
228-0400, or leave it on their Facebook page)
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