BY LEONARD PITTS JR., LPITTS@MIAMIHERALD.COM
And all heck broke loose.
Under other circumstances, it would have been an event noteworthy only for being ordinary, a scene we’ve seen played out a million times. But we’ve never seen it like this. That’s because Sgt. Brandon Morgan’s “honey” is a guy named Dalan Wells and that photo of them playing same-sex tonsil hockey thus manages to simultaneously affirm and subvert a cherished bit of patriotic iconography: the returning serviceman being greeted by the one he loves.
The image forces us to see an old thing in a new way. It is a sign of the times — jarringly so for some.
That’s why it went viral, why it has made international headlines and sparked thousands of comments on message boards.