Sara Ting's dream of a granite-and-glass symbol of racial harmony in Boston would be a towering achievement

By CHRISTOPHER COX

We revel in the marathons, not the quick fix.  Long-distance road races, endless political wrangling and, of   “It’s been a long process,” said Ting – an observation that Jeremy Jacobs or Bob Kraft or John Harrington could easily second.  “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.  “But I have faith that somehow, somewhere it will get done and it’s just a question of time.”

For now, the planned 120-foot tower gleams only in architectural render and posters displayed on MBTA trains and buses. But if Ting still needs a quarter acre site and several million dollars (she said her nonprofit group has raised $250,000 in cash and in-kind services)  to fulfill this quixotic vision, the Jamaica Plain resident does not lack for patience or focus.   The foundation for the Unity Tower began with a brief poem – 20 words and one ampersand – that Ting, now 49, wrote more than 20 years ago. Her multicultural  meditation was later published in a book of poetry; in 1985 it became the centerpiece of public-service campaign in Boston promoting racial and ethnic tolerance.  "Poetry comes from the soul”, said Ting, a reporter for WHDH-TVs "Urban Update" program.  "It doesn't come from the intellect. ... Poetry gets at the inner core."

Ting later replicated "The Sun Poem" campaign in New York City and Providence. Posters of the poem also hang on college campuses and in public school classrooms and housing projects throughout the cornmonwealth.  But Ting wanted a more concrete and permanent art form, something that would meld land with the openness of the sky and the calming influence of water. "It reaches people in a profound way as a poster,", Ting said. "I can't imagine what it will do as a symbol."

The structure proposed by Cambridge architects Kate and D. Scott MacPherson, owners of the MacPherson Partnership, would symbolically give life and light to Ting's idealistic words. Glass panels would diffuse sunlight and cast a rainbow of light upon a granite tablet inscribed with the poem.  "It is the hand of God coming through in the poem:, said Scott MacPherson. "It's really a piece of sculpture." 

Ting believes the tower has the potential to close a divisive chapter in Boston’s racial history at a historic time. "We need something for the new millennium to embrace each other Ting said.  "There is a power in symbols," she continued. "We   don't have enough positive symbols around that people can be uplifted and inspired by."      If there is a problem, it could be with the scale or location of the tower. Some local politicians just might be greater than the sun.   "Nobody has said to my face that this is a lousy idea”,  Ting related. "The concern I've sensed is the height issue." Numerous existing buildings along the Inner harbor top the height of her proposed tower, she noted.  Ting said she was "definitely open" to design changes. You have to be flexible," said MacPherson, whose  firm also designed the revamped Frog Pond and visitors center on Boston Common. "The concept is so strong it can be scaled up, scaled down ... It can take a lot of heat."

The current struggle is to find a site, preferably on the Inner Harbor, ideally for free. Ting said her organization has looked at parcels owned by both the city and private developers.  She declined to identify specific locations.

"Our proposal is in a couple of hands, places that are  potential sites," Ting said. "It's a tedious process.  To me, getting the land is half the project." New England Holocaust Memorial founder Steve Ross, who serves on the project's broad-based board of  advisers, has given Ting a pep talk based on his own experience.  “I kept telling her. Conceive, believe and achieve," said Ross, who labored for nine years to get his memorial built. "Sometimes you get discouraged and want to give up. You can’t because some people out there want you to give up."  Ting admits she has worried some observers might construe her vision as an ego trip writ large.  Her response:  Please walk in my shoes for the past 13 years and then say that to me.  “If I could be invisible doing this, I would …  but the only reason things get done is because some person was not willing to give up”.

So she continues to search for the land and money to build her rainbow.  Scouting the harbor, researching property records, pushing for meetings to plead her case.  Ting recently implemented a new public awareness campaign with T posters and our  Web site. 

“I guess the way I look at life, when I leave this world I want to leave it a little bit better than when I came in”, Ting reflected.  “It’s a big (project) but I felt if I’m going to do something, why not do something that’s going to be of significance?” 

“The beauty of this project is that it’s not shoving anything down anybody’s throat.  It’s just there, just like the sun.”