We have recently returned from an east coast trip that created a series of cherished memories. However, one is particularly worthy of note here: our 8-year-old grandson was on his first adventure to New York, and he specifically asked to see the Statue of Liberty.
Given my New York roots and regular visits with family on the east coast while raising our own kids, before this latest trip we had been to the Statue quite a number of times. For those who haven’t made the journey, it is a ferry circuit during which visitors stop at both the Statue and Ellis Island – now a museum — through which approximately 12 million immigrants speaking at least 30 different languages were processed between 1892 and 1954.
I recall admiring the Statue in past visits, but being more interested in Ellis Island Museum’s exhibits and artifacts.
This time was different.
It wasn’t that Ellis Island had any less meaning – given the assault on our immigration heritage now being wrought by President Donald Trump and his minions, it perhaps had more – but I noticed that as our ferry approached the Statue, a hush fell over the crowd. Nobody – and there were a lot of people on this boat – said anything. I expected to be primarily focused on our grandson’s reactions, but was surprised to find that I was just as much taken up by my own. We all looked up with reverence, with wonder.
We have been to a lot of federal parks and monuments. While for me a couple stand out — one cannot visit Gettysburg National Military Park without feeling that you tread upon sacred ground, nor visit the Lincoln Memorial without viscerally experiencing the somber and ponderous weight one man bore upon his shoulders to preserve our union – each of these commemorate our past. The Statue of Liberty is about our future – the promise, the dream of America.
As I gazed upward I realized that Lady Liberty symbolizes the American dream not only for the “tired … poor … huddled masses … wretched refuse” from other shores that Emma Lazarus described in her 1883 poem, but for all of us, no matter how many generations of our forebears may have been here, who are “yearning to breathe free.”
Let us persevere so that she is never reduced to an ironic mockery. May God Bless America.
McCoy's Noise 