BRAMA, Aug 26, 2004, 11:00 am ET
Flip-flopping - a good thing for New York Ukrainians
BRAMA, New York — Yesterday, Lydia Ruth, the ESB's (Empire State Building's) Public Relations
Director acted quickly to correct a mistake that could easily have
turned into a bittersweet memory for Ukrainian New Yorkers. They will
now have a heartwarming memory of the time when the greatest
building in the greatest city in the world was lit up for two days in a
row to honor the 13th anniversary of Ukraine's independence.
The scheduled tower lighting on Tuesday August 24th went as planned but with one
hitch - the bands of color were reversed. What should have been yellow
(or gold) on the bottom with blue on top, turned into blue topped with yellow.
The flaw was caught by Brama, not to mention all the other attentive
Ukrainian New Yorkers, as soon as dusk began to settle over the city and
the lights in the lower rings of the tower began to show a hint of blue.
But by then it was too late to flip the colors around. It takes a team of 6 men
four hours to adjust the lighting scheme, and the eletricians' day was
long over by the time the lights became fully visible.
Iryna Liber of the National Board of the Ukrainian American Youth Association
(CYM), was very disappointed by the mistake. It was on CYM's initiative that the
ESB tower lighting was scheduled to sport Ukrainian colors. Ms. Liber had even
arranged a helicopter ride to take overhead shots of the lighting in midtown
Manhattan.
In a highly unusual move, the ESB's Ms. Ruth surprised everyone by deciding to light up
the towers for Ukrainians again the following day, this time with a band of yellow
below blue which correctly represents the colors of the flag. "I wouldn't even
know where to begin to apologize to you and all the Ukrainian people who live in
the New York City area," Ms. Ruth said in a phone call to Brama.
'New Yorkrainian' Yura Pylyp, who left a complaint with the ESB, also received a call from Ms. Ruth, attesting to her efforts to repair any and all possible public relations issues with area Ukrainians.
He received this gracious note from Ms. Ruth after the second tower lighting:
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"I was very upset, angry and disappointed to learn that the colors had been reversed on the tower Tues. evening. Fortunately, the tower was scheduled to be white Wed. evening, so I was able to reschedule the Ukrainian Independence Day lighting tribute for Wed. evening and this time the colors were displayed in the proper sequence.
"So many people who live in the metropolitan New York area look to our tower lights as a barometer of what is going on in the city. I feel it is extremely important for the Empire State Building to honor the myriad nationalities who make up the population of the New York City area with our world famous tower lights in the colors of their countries' flags on the occasions of their homelands' Independence Days.
Lydia Ruth
Director of Public Relations
Empire State Building
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Ms. Ruth's apology was especially exceptional, and her quickly executed gesture more than made up for any letdown to New York area Ukrainians. It just goes to show that flip-flopping in order to get things right is good.
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