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    Statue of Liberty
 

    Symbol of Immigrant Dreams  
 

 

 

  

 

 Spirit of The Law

 

      

 


 The Statue of Liberty was, from 1886 until the Jet age, often the first glimpse of the United States for millions of American immigrants after oceanic voyages from Europe.

 

Welcome to our shores - "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free..."

France gave the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States more than 100 years ago as a gesture of friendship after the American Revolution. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi designed the sculpture to commemorate the centennial of American Independence. The American people were to build the pedestal. Funds were a problem for both countries. In France, public fees, entertainments and a lottery were used to raise funds. In the United States, it was theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions and prize fights. Joseph Pulitzer wrote editorials in his newspaper criticizing both wealthy and middle class Americans for not supporting the fund raising effort.

Bartholdi needed an engineer for such a colossal copper sculpture. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower, designed the framework allowing the copper skin to move independently yet stand upright. Completed in France in 1884, the Statue arrived in New York Harbor in June of 1885 in 350 pieces packed in 214 crates on board a French frigate. The Statue was reassembled in four months. In 1886 thousands of spectators witnessed the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.

 
What is liberty if it is exercised at the shot of the starter’s gun but not in ensuring equidistance from the finishing line? It results in liberty enlightening much of the world, not of its burdens, but of its fruits.

It’s time we consider the objective potentials of humanity and not the subjective ordering of society in our construction of a Statute of Liberty. That would see the maximal conditions being applied to all humanity in order to develop its potentials to its maximum. It is just such a statute that would enable us to extricate the human condition, that has so far languished in the shadow of Lady Liberty, and be directed by its light.

… for without them, we cannot hold the satisfaction of their ensuing needs hostage and become accomplished and affluent by relieving these tired, poor and huddled masses of the burden of the fruits of their labour as they till our fields and work our mills for fear of starvation.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the United States, and, more generally, represents liberty and escape from oppression. It has been a symbol of welcome to arriving immigrants.

The American Immigrant Wall of Honor at Ellis Island, the largest Wall of names in the world, pays tribute to America's rich cultural heritage, celebrating American immigration from its earliest beginnings right up to present day.

Over 700,000 names are currently inscribed, representing virtually every nationality, including those who endured forced migration from slavery as well as our earliest settlers, the American Indian.

Following the restoration in the 1980's, the Main Building reopened in 1990 as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, a symbol of America's immigrant heritage. The museum exhibits chronicle Ellis Island's role in immigration history and view it in the context of its time and the still broader context of four centuries of immigration to America.

The exhibits also portray and give voice to the immigrants themselves. Each of their stories is unique and bears witness to the courage and determination that enables men and women to leave their homes and seek new opportunities in an unknown land.

Visitors climb 354 steps to reach the crown or 192 steps to the top of the pedestal. The seven rays of the crown represent the seven seas and continents of the world. There are 25 windows in the crown. Winds of 50 miles per hour cause the torch to sway five inches.

  

Spirit of The Law

 

Josephine Nugent, a high school senior from Bridgeport, Connecticut, one day in April 1983, in the company of her classmates, made her first visit to the Statue of Liberty. She had come to the United States from South Vietnam seven years previously. When a reporter asked what she thought of the monument, she replied, "It's one of the most beautiful symbols of the United States.

If the horror and tragedy of September 11, 2001 affect our country so that we lose our light, our enemies that spread terror will win against us. We will become prisoners of our own fears.

For without the light of freedom that welcomes all who desperately long for liberty, the prison that is created will change our country and way of life forever.

For without a vision, the people perish - Pro 29:18

The Statue's granite pedestal was placed in the courtyard of the star-shaped walls of Fort Wood. In 1901 it was placed under the War Department. Fort Wood and the Statue of Liberty became a National Monument in 1924 and was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933. In 1937 it was enlarged to encompass Bedloe's Island, renamed Liberty Island in 1956. Ellis Island was transferred to the National Park Service and became part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965. In 1982 President Ronald Reagan appointed Lee Iacocca to head up a private effort to restore the Statue of Liberty. Fundraising began for the $87 million restoration under a public/private partnership. In 1984 the United Nations designated the Statue of Liberty as a World Heritage Site. On July 5, 1986 the newly restored Statue reopened to the public during Liberty Weekend, celebrating her centennial.