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Statue of Liberty
The statue of LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD
A few good links here are...
LIVE WEBCAM by Georgeson Shareholder Communications - was http://www.sccorp.com/cam/
By ENDEX (was http://www.endex.com/gf/buildings/liberty/liberty.html)
By Michael Holmboe
was http://home.online.no/~kanda/statue.htm
By New York City tourist company
www.Bartholdi2004.com (gone)
... and some more if you'd like to add them. E-mail here
A country that prides itself on FREEDOM even to the extent of having a great statue symbolising it there for all to see and be inspired by, puts to shame regimes that do not regard personal liberty as so important.
Also, the inscription on the Statue of Liberty reads...
"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-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
...which is an open policy that's remarkable!
| That would
certainly be as you say if it were not a complete fiction.
How "having" a statue demonstrates our
commitment to freedom is questionable, at best, when you
consider the following: The statue was a gift from
France, a nation widely excoriated in the States after
they (along with most of the rest of the world) failed to
knuckle under to US demands that it be authorized to
invade Iraq for reasons that are not now and were not
then clear to anyone. The statue was a gift: The US did
not ask for it or design it. If the statue demonstrates
any nation's commitment to liberty, it would be that of
France, not the US. Secondly, the inscription, which you call a "remarkable [sic] open policy" would indeed be, if it were US policy. It ain't. Not by a long shot. In recent years, what used to be called the Imigration and Naturalization Service has been reorganized. It is now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. What used to be a bureau for immigration to the US is now the law enforcement agency designed to keep people out. In addition, several immigration bills currently under consideration in Congress would pour billions into sealing our borders, particularly the border with Mexico. It could not be clearer that the U.S. does not want anyone's "huddled masses," "wretched refuse," "homeless," or "tempest-tossed," no matter what they yearn for. The Statue of Liberty is an anachronism in America today. We remain by far the world's most prosperous nation and, for a few more years, probably, the freeest nation. The cry of the French Revolution, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité," however, is now only history in the U.S., it is no longer official policy. Just as it took the populace of western nations to understand that we should not support repressive dictators throughout the Third World, you might want to take a look at what is going on in real US policy, law, and real American popular sentiment, lest you make the mistake of celebrating a repressive dictatorship in the New World. Best from the former colonies, KT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free. |