Mamamontezz's Mental Rumpus Room

Woulda, Coulda, but Still Shouldn't

After September 11, 2001, for reasons of public safety and the protection of a national treasure, Liberty Island was closed to the public. The only way a tourist or native New Yorker could see the old lady was from shore or from the deck of a ferry or tour boat in the harbor.

And this was both necessary and good policy in the immediate aftermath of the terrorism that had taken down the two tallest buildings in NYC, damaged the symbol of the American military, and caused another jet to be brought down impotently in a farm field in Pennsylvania, albiet not without a horrible loss of life.

Eventually, the island was reopened, and tourists could walk about below the base of Lady Liberty. With increased security, it was determined that a limit number of persons could have access, and people began visiting her again.

We do not know how many people would have tried to destroy her, to desecrate a national symbol. We need not know. But we have to at least acknowledge that there have very probably been plans and plots to do so, and that restricting access to her contributed to her safety.

But is seems that this is not a good thing. There are complaints, via the Associate Press and the New York Times, that somehow because the Statue of Liberty could have been made open and available before now, it should have been.

They also complain that because the nonprofit foundation which supports and maintains the island and statue had a sizeable general fund and an endowment in the many millions of dollars, they should have spent it now to expidite her opening instead of setting it aside for the many more years she will stand and require maintenance and upkeep.

Yes, spend every nickel you have, throw open the entire island, and open a monument, irreplaceable, to the very real threat of terror for no other reason than you think it should be, and it possibly could have been.

How arrogant is that? For some editorialist at the oh so reputable New York Times to demand the opening of a monument that belongs not to New York City, but to all Americans, purely because their personal timetable says it could be is nothing short of egotism.

The children and grandchildren and even great-grandchildren of the millions of school children who saved their pennies and collected them together by classroom and school to build the massive base on which she stands are the people you insult with your vain and pandering drivel, not the United States Parks Service or the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation who maintain it for us. And to think you have any voice in this matter is ludicrous.

Posted by Mamamontezz at April 4, 2004 01:22 AM