Babylon Village pays proper tribute to COVID workers

Countless people bring honor and stamina to a day’s work. Often, their true value is taken for granted. They stood out especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when certain plans and protocols had to be decided on the fly amid a serious health threat, the details of which took time for everyone from top to bottom to understand.

The further time moves us away from that crisis, the more reminders we need. Celebrating the nurses, medics, firefighters, police officers, and those in trades from plumbers to truckers to grocery and pharmacy and funeral home employees, is more than appropriate. They kept showing up for work during a hazardous and deadly period for public health. As protocols were being devised, these essential workers and volunteers could not join in the protections of locking down, or working remotely.

The Village of Babylon is now among the communities and jurisdictions on and off Long Island finding ways to salute those who merit it. As village historian Wayne Horsley told Newsday, a new fountain is planned, 20 feet wide and 17 feet tall, to be completed by the end of 2025. Fundraisers are planned for its estimated $400,000 cost, and the Town of Babylon pledges $50,000 in federal pandemic relief aid. Collaborators in this “Heroes Fountain” project include the Babylon Village Historical Society, Northwell Health, Good Samaritan University Hospital, and Village Mayor Mary Adams.

Showing public respect to those who handled a past crisis points us to role models — a good counterpoint to the relentless hype of celebrities for celebrity’s sake, as well as of national politicians, business leaders, and entertainers.

It’s far from the first such populistic monument in this community. In 2018, a statue called “The Bayman” was unveiled. Cast in bronze, the subject wears waders, tongs, and a mustache — reminding those who see it of what once was the big clamming trade in the Great South Bay. Three years earlier, a World War I “doughboy” statue became part of the scene at a renovated veterans’ plaza near the Copiague Long Island Rail Road station — a project under the aegis of the Town of Babylon.

The new COVID-period tribute will be placed off Montauk Highway near Hawley’s Pond and feature the likeness of a nurse by California-based sculptor Jose Fernandez.

Perhaps we should all make it more of a habit to recognize that the way people spend their work days matters more than what they wear, drive, own, or look like.

For kids growing up nowadays, this COVID tribute could signify that there’s a sense of accomplishment to be won by just showing up to work and doing a job properly. The lesson should be as simple as that.