PHILADELPHIA - A Wildwood veterans group and a Central Jersey baseball team have offered new homes for a Kate Smith statue banished by the Philadelphia Flyers.
But the Flyers aren't commenting on the requests for its sculpture, which was removed from its perch near the team's arena due to concerns over racist lyrics in songs performed by Smith in the 1930s.
American Legion Post 184 in Wildwood has launched a petition drive, asking the Flyers to send the statue to the Jersey Shore resort. The effort drew more than 1,000 signatures in its first 24 hours, said post commander Harry Weimar.
And the owner of the Somerset Patriots, an Atlantic League baseball team in Bridgewater, has offered $10,000 to a charity of the Flyers' choice in exchange for the statue.
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“The removal of the statue is an attack on veterans who fought for this country,” says the veterans group's online appeal.
"We simply want to free Kate," declared Steve Kalafer, founding chairman of the Patriots.
Smith, who died in 1986, was a good-luck charm for the Flyers, even singing "God Bless America" on the ice before the team won it first Stanley Cup trophy in May 1974.
But the team recently said it was dropping her version of the song after learning of offensive language in other tunes performed by Smith.
One of the songs includes the lines, “Someone had to slave and be able to sing, That’s why darkies were born."
Those lyrics are "incompatible with the values of our organization and evoke painful and unacceptable themes," the team said in a statement Sunday.
It said the statue, which had been shrouded in black cloth, was removed from its long-time perch near the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia, "to ensure the sentiments stirred this week are no longer echoed."
The team has declined to make additional comments.
The statue's suitors see a different message in Smith's performance.
The American Legion post's appeal on ipetitions.com says "God Bless America," written in 1918 by Irving Berlin, "has become the song for the American people and for our veterans."
And Weimar described Smith as "a true patriot" who traveled great distances to perform on military bases.
"Gold Bless America IS Kate Smith," he said in an email.
He said the statue could join other veterans memorials in Wildwood, including the Vietnam Memorial Wall and Memory Lane.
Weimar said the post "fully supported" WIldwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr., who has said the resort would continue to play Smith's song on the boardwalk each day at 11 a.m.
Kalafer said he wants to display the statue at his team's TD Bank Park, where Smith's "God Bless America" will be played at each game.
He said Smith was "a wonderful American" who did not write the offensive lyrics.
"She cannot be tarnished by singing a song that her recording company provided for her," Kalafer said Friday.
"When you hear 'politically correct,' how about just correct, fair and honorable?" he continued.
Kalafer noted he has a crew prepared to pick up the statue as early as Monday morning.
"I'm not condemning the Philadelphia Flyers," he said. "If they don't have a use for Kate Smith, the Somerset Patriots do."
Jim Walsh: @jimwalsh_cp; 856-486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com
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https://www.app.com/story/news/local/how-we-live/race/2019/04/27/american-legion-post-wildwood-wants-kate-smith-statue-from-flyers/3593162002/
2019-04-27 08:30:00Z
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