Solemn Sunday: Commemorating Americans Lost from COVID-19

In the spring of 2020, Artist Susanne Brennan Firstenberg was incensed when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) told Tucker Carlson, while discussing the raging COVID pandemic, that “There are more important things than living.”

Patrick even went further during that interview to suggest grandparents should be willing to die from COVID in order to save the economy for their grandchildren.

CREATOR: Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg

“That really disturbed me,” Firstenberg, who’s worked as a Hospice volunteer for over 25 years, told ABC News.  But it inspired her into action with creation of her first display of more than 267,000 small white flags on the four-acre D.C. Armory Parade Grounds in the fall of 2020, just outside RFK Stadium.

At that time, she had originally planned on displaying small American flags.  But not only did she decide she didn’t want to politicize her efforts– she couldn’t find enough small American flags because of the election.  Consequently, she was happy with her selection of white because it signifies innocence and purity.

Moved by the overwhelming response to her first installation, she knew that second one would require a much larger venue.  She began discussions with the Federal Parks Service, and was successful in securing a site on the National Mall of more than 20 acres next to the Washington Monument.  It borders the White House, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the World War II Memorial.

The installation, In America: Remember, will be open for viewing from September 17 thru October 3, 2021.

She initially purchased 630,000 flags in June, but the Delta variant combined with the selfishness of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers leading to more deaths forced her to purchase an additional 60,000.

[NOTE how the tote board number changes]

Firstenberg enlisted the services of Ruppert Landscape for 150 employees working with a corps of volunteers to place the flags in 143 geometric sections that create 3.8 miles of walking paths.  Scattered throughout the display are numerous white benches, making it easy for visitors’ quiet reflections.

This year’s installation is also designed to be more interactive.  They will have 10,000 Sharpies available for visitors to use to inscribe personal messages on the flags.

And for those unable to view it in person, they can request on the installation’s website to have a message commemorating their loved one(s) written on a flag and then planted for them. The flag will be photographed and its location recorded so mourners can find it on a digital map of the installation, created by Esri, a geographic information company.

They encourage people to decorate the flags as they deem appropriate.  There was a group of doctors and nurses from Maryland’s Howard County General Hospital who decorated the flags with red stickers to honor the more than 3,600 healthcare workers who have died of COVID.

During the opening ceremony dedication, Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, noted that the flag display is the largest installation on the Mall since the that of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another collaborative art piece that was displayed multiple times during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

[Demonstrates how the flags are symmetrically planted.  And that’s Speaker Pelosi visiting the site.]

Firstenberg, compelled by outrage she felt for Trump and his fellow Republicans constantly downplaying the pandemic during the election, was  inspired to create her first installation.  She now hopes the second installation will convince people to get vaccinated.

“The last thing I want to do is to have to buy more flags.”