As a senior citizen, one can enjoy freedom from accepting that people already perceive you as eccentric, and say what you really think.
So, this old lady wonders, did we ever send a thank you note for the lovely Statue of Liberty? Merci beaucoup!
I mean, rescuing a country from the Nazis is one thing, but wouldn’t a return gift be appropriate? Getting rid of ICE would be in the right spirit. And I protest on foot and at the ballot box, but I don’t think that the world has nearly enough graceful, meaningful statues rising from the seas. We should reciprocate.
How about a winged liberty in flight, supported over the waves by an aerodynamic pedestal? Perhaps she could spin in the winds like a colossal whirligig? Feel free to submit your own ideas, and why stop there? An immense clipper ship anchored outside of Boston, an elegant goose in flight over a Canadian harbor, who knows?
It was the French people, their school children and philanthropists whose generosity created our treasured statue, our symbol of liberty, not their government. Our government wouldn’t even spring for the pedestal; it was our citizens who funded that.
Now Trump proposes a 40% increase in our obscene military budget in a single year. Of course an incredible number of more humanitarian objectives could be achieved. But we the people — with school teachers, artists, engineers, philanthropists and others creating and working on ideas — might create a symbol of beauty and goodwill that seeds more goodwill and peace than any increase in the military budget. Just a thought.
Debbie Hough, Salt Lake City