Jan 20 2004
Loss of Liberty
While reading the always entertaining and informative New Yorker with my coffee this morning, I discovered that although I, too, am always entertaining, there are egegrious lapses in my information department.
A small ad caught my eye (I always check out the ads in the New Yorker, since quite a lot of them are for vintage jewelry and I love to decide which pieces I’d buy if I were the Idle Rich Suzy I should be) and revealed the appalling fact that the Statue of Liberty has been closed for the past two years (actually, since the dark, dreadful day of September 11, 2001). Despite being almost as patriotic as Colin, and born in the great state of New York, and an avid reader of the New Yorker, I had no idea.
The Statue is arguably one of the great American icons, a symbol of what our nation stands for, and should be available to people all over the world to visit. If you need a fabulous gift idea, why not make a donation in the name of your friend or relation to help reopen the statue? Talk about a win/win: you reduce your shopping (and wrapping and mailing) stress, your recipient doesn’t end up with yet another object s/he doesn’t really need, and you’ll be part of history, helping to relight the torch of liberty so it shines once again as a beacon of hope. Or make a donation in your own name and bask in the reflected glory.