Our Point Of View

A Message from Hilda Pang Fu, Luminari President and Founder

Photo by Dr. Freddie Fu

Sometimes, when words fail us, we are lucky enough to find an image that captures our feelings. This is such an image.

Most of us here in the Pittsburgh area are familiar with the sculpture “Point of View.” It is the work of James A. West, commissioned by the city in 1990. It stands in a small park on Mt. Washington, overlooking the Golden Triangle.

The piece depicts George Washington and Seneca leader Guyasuta in a face-to-face meeting in October 1770. The two men met while General Washington was in the area touring land for a future settlement along the Ohio River.

I am showing you this image because I have become increasingly concerned that the values of civility and common respect are disappearing from our world. Recent political events—and the brash discourse surrounding them—appear to be injecting a poisonous rancor into the common ground we share. One needs only glance at social media screens to recognize that the skills of thoughtful conversation and consideration have been forgotten.

But I, for one, am not losing hope. When I look at this image, I see two men whose life experiences and goals could not have been more divergent. And yet…

And yet, they came together in mutual respect to find the goals they shared. Notice they have put down their weapons. And despite what was almost certainly a language barrier, they are listening.

Of course, If this photograph were historically accurate, there would be no grand city over their shoulders. All would be green and wild and raw.

But I like this image better, because it shows all the dazzling progress that was sparked by that face-to-face meeting. We see skyscrapers, green space, a fountain, stadiums—all of them monuments to the spirit of cooperation that built this city.

And in the distance I see bridges, themselves carrying the message that progress and peace lie only in the spaces between us. It is the work of civility and diplomacy that reaches across that space.

If you haven’t seen the sculpture, the next time you’re on Mt. Washington, drive west on Grandview Avenue and see the General and the Chief, two very different individuals who met on common ground. And then look across the water and see all that their meeting started.

It is my sincere hope that, more than 3 centuries later, we may return to that same spirit of kindness and cooperation. We need it now more than ever.