Last week, City Council speaker Christine Quinn encouraged New Yorkers to place battery-operated candles in their windows on August 26th in honor of Mother Teresa's 100th birthday. Empire State Building owner Andrew Malkin, who rejected the Catholic's League request to light the ESB in honor of the late nun, called the plan "a great way for people to show their own feelings." Now, Quinn is calling Malkin a flip-flopper.
Quinn wrote Malkin, "The idea of individuals placing lights in our own windows is being done because you have refused to do what you could do. Therefore, your endorsement of our effort is the height of hypocrisy." She also asked him to reconsider the building's stance on not honoring religious figures with lighting (even though they dimmed the lights for Pope John Paul II's death in 2005). "Mother Teresa's message was that all people have a personal responsibility to help their fellow man. This means using your resources and your power to help people and spread this message."
Tonight, the ESB will light up Red, White and Blue in honor of Flag Day. Though they don't honor "religious organizations or their figureheads," the building does light up for holidays like Easter, Hanukkah and Eid-al-Fitr.
