Statue of Liberty evacuated

“Statue of Liberty evacuated”
Newspaper headline 5th July 2018

No way could I resist this. From heaving a sigh of relief to wondering what took them so long I am, above all, delighted that they have rumbled what is going on and are doing something about it. After all, the Statue of Liberty stands for more than free speech. It represents honourable dealing, truth and decency. It has been assailed on all these fronts. High time it was evacuated. Whether they are simply protecting it or planning a full refurbishment I don’t know. Let it rest a while.

And while it is doing so let us ponder the meaning of Liberty today. Violence, right to bear arms while still a child, bad language as a positive promotion for any form of entertainment, isolationism, whim that affects millions of people and trillions of dollars – all these count as Liberty. Perhaps the tree top of liberty is the right of Anyone Senior to pardon themselves of any crime committed while in office. ‘Or out of it’ will follow soon. Inequitable wealth is foolish; inequitable justice is madness.

Rats in an overcrowded cage turn cannibalistic. Humans are starting to show the early warning signs of cannibalism. No, we are not eating each other yet but aggressive behaviour precedes killing; consumption follows only a little later. The warning signs are when people start trying to protect themselves, albeit justifiably. Today we call protection ‘regulation’. It begins by admitting that there are circumstances in which we behave dishonourably. We pass laws or create ‘guidelines’ in an attempt to limit the damage from these.

All restraint is an incentive to break out of it. Dogs on leads strain to escape what they perceive as capture. Humans, too, try to escape the trap of restraint – harder as the pull itself gets stronger. Soon control becomes a challenge to evade it. We proceed to assume that a lack of control permits any sort of behaviour. ‘Everything not forbidden is permissible.’ Might starts to win.

My seventh great grandchild, Phoebe, born on 3rd July, has launched into a world of example set far outside her family and home. Her parents are thoroughly good people who will bring her up with high standards and good judgment. But the mass media she will be exposed to, far greater than I was when I was young, will be full of poor example and rotten behaviour. It’s what sells media.

So I hope that whatever they are doing to the Statue of Liberty will make it shine again. I wish for an example by the Lady that inspires all my great grandchildren and yours, too. I want the United States to be great again, great in a world sense not in a Poughkeepsie sense.

P.S. Since writing this it has been revealed that the reason for evacuation was the appearance of a person on the Statue. The only surprise was that it was a woman, not the man we all expected.

Bless him, he’s out raising tariffs, that’s why.