The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of France. It was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.
The draped figure holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot she steps on a broken chain and shackle, commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War.
This statue has symbolically represented freedom and democracy not only for the U.S.A. but for the world ever since - until now.
For the first time since America fought for its independence, and later, abolished slavery, that nation has become something else.
Donald Trump and his Republican regime, are categorically destroying the power of that symbology, as he rapes the nation, evicting tens of thousands of landed immigrants, the very matrix of what made America great, as he destroys alliances across the world and shatters trust and faith in that nation’s stance for peace, democracy and freedom.
The torch of freedom is no longer being carried by the U.S.A. It is has now fallen to other hands, particularly Ukraine and President Zelensky, who are fighting not only for their rights to exist as an independent nation from the utter oppression of Russia, but in fact, for freedom and democracy, because that is what is at stake everywhere.
Donald Trump does not represent the aspirations of all Americans, but unfortunately, he is being permitted by an entire nation of some 350 million people, to carry out a systematic dismantlement of the very fundamentals which once defined the U.S.A. as a beacon of hope, freedom and democracy for the world - a truly a great nation.
It’s now up to the rest of us to carry that torch, not just Ukraine - because the threat is real and freedom is something that must be defended.
Author of high-concept thrillers
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