Arch to go pink in recognition of breast cancer

ST. LOUIS -- For one night next week, the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch will be illuminated pink in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, thanks to a push by a senator whose mother died of the disease.

But while calling the effort noble and worthy, not everyone on Wednesday believed artificially coloring a national monument for what could be the first time -- and the precedence of it being ordered legislatively -- is a bright idea.

"It's not in any way opposition to this cause," said Dave Barna, a Washington-based spokesman for the National Park Service, caretaker of the Arch and its grounds. "For us, the issue is the precedent it sets for future kinds of events."

To Barna, allowing such displays on "sacred sites" sets up free-speech disputes and prospects of illuminating monuments in protest. His concern: "Is it going to be red for the Communist Party on May Day? That sounds kind of snide, but this opens you up to have to consider at least those kinds of things."

"We have to treat everyone the same. If you allow a certain type of event with one organization, you open it up to everyone else," he said. "You have to assume there'll be some individual who'll want to do this in some protest manner.

"You're sort of drawing a fine line here," he added. "We consider these monuments sacred sites. The color or the style or the function was all the result of those architects and design. They're pieces of art, and we don't want to see changes, even temporarily."

Under the measure approved by Congress at the urging of Sen. Jim Talent, a Republican from the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, the Arch is to be illuminated only Monday, after 8 p.m.

Talent, whose mother Marie died of breast cancer in 1988, said Wednesday he was "very pleased" with congressional passage of the Arch-lighting measure that "should accomplish a lot of different good things," including encouraging women and families struggling with the disease.

"The primary purpose is to raise awareness" about a disease which, if detected early, is very treatable, Talent said.

He called the Park Service's worries about the measure's precedence-setting "a legitimate concern" he looked to ease by getting Congress' backing.

"I agree that it's a concern, but I don't think we have to go so far as to never use landmarks for important public health and safety purposes," he said. "I've told the Park Service they should do some rule-making on this, and maybe the rules are that we don't do this unless Congress commands us to do it."

Talent's plan takes the observance traditionally marked by pink ribbons and fun runs to new heights, though turning the Arch aglow isn't unheard of.

The landmark has been basked during certain hours at night since crews installed in-ground, computer-controlled lights -- each one 3,000 watts, twice the power of those at Busch Stadium -- in 2001.

Talent said the idea to think pink was that of some area business leaders, including executives at St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co., operator of such regional chains as Famous-Barr, The Jones Store, Lord & Taylor and Filene's.

Similar efforts are taking place elsewhere, including in Philadelphia and Dover, Del.

In April, the Park Service rebelled when organizers of an audio-and-video work telling personal stories of violence and loss sought to project the work onto the federally maintained, stately Old Courthouse near the Arch.

The Park Service said updated versions of the project did not fit with themes necessary for exhibits at the Old Courthouse, where history's most significant slavery lawsuit -- the Dred Scott case -- initially was heard in 1846. The Supreme Court eventually ruled against Scott, saying that no blacks, free or slave, could be U.S. citizens.

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On the Net:

American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org

Breast Cancer Action: http://www.bcaction.org

National Park Service's Arch grounds, http://www.nps.gov/jeff