Happy Fourth: to liberty!
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post. It was written in the springtime some years ago, on a visit to New York. I thought it especially relevant today, though, because I see our liberties as increasingly threatened.]
I’ve been visiting New York City, the place where I grew up. I decide to take a walk to the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights, never having been there before.
When you approach the Promenade you can’t really see what’s in store. You walk down a normal-looking street, spot a bit of blue at the end of the block, make a right turn–and, then, suddenly, there is New York:
And so it is for me. I take a turn, and catch my breath: downtown Manhattan rises to my left, seemingly close enough to touch, across the narrow East River. I see skyscrapers, piers, the orange-gold Staten Island ferry. In front of me, there are the graceful gothic arches of the Brooklyn Bridge. To my right, the back of some brownstones, and a well-tended and charming garden that goes on for a third of a mile.
I walk down the promenade looking first left and then right, not knowing which vista I prefer, but liking them both, especially in combination, because they complement each other so well.
All around me are people, relaxing. Lovers walking hand in hand, mothers pushing babies in strollers, fathers pushing babies in strollers, nannies pushing babies in strollers. People walking their dogs (a preponderance of pugs, for some reason), pigeons strutting and courting, tourists taking photos of themselves with the skyline as background, every other person speaking a foreign language.
The garden is more advanced from what it must be at my house, reminding me that New York is really a southern city compared to New England. Daffodils, the startling blue of grape hyacinths, tulips in a rainbow of soft colors, those light-purple azaleas that are always the first of their kind, flowering pink magnolia and airy white dogwood and other blooming trees I don’t know the names of.
In the view to my left, of course, there’s something missing. Something very large. Two things, actually: the World Trade Center towers. Just the day before, we had driven past that sprawling wound, with its mostly-unfilled acreage where the WTC had once stood, now surrounded by fencing. Driving by it is like passing a war memorial and graveyard combined; the urge is to bow one’s head.
As I look at the skyline from the Promenade, I know that those towers are missing, but I don’t really register the loss visually. I left New York in 1965, never to live there again, returning thereafter only as occasional visitor. The World Trade Center was built in the early seventies, so I never managed to incorporate it into that personal New York skyline of memory that I hold in my mind’s eye, even though I saw the towers on every visit. So, what I now see resembles nothing more than the skyline of my youth, restored, a fact which seems paradoxical to me. But I feel the loss, even though I don’t see it. Viewing the skyline always has a tinge of sadness now, which it never had before 9/11.
I come to the end of the walkway and turn myself around to set off on the return trip. And, suddenly, the view changes. Now, of course, the garden is to my left and the city to my right; and the Brooklyn Bridge, which was ahead of me, is now behind me and out of sight. But now I can see for the first time, ahead of me and to the right, something that was behind me before. In the middle of the harbor, the pale-green Statue of Liberty stands firmly on its concrete foundation, arm raised high, torch in hand.
The sight is intensely familiar to me—I used to see it very often when I was growing up. But I’ve never seen it from this angle before. She seems both small and gigantic at the same time: dwarfed by the skyscrapers near me that threaten to overwhelm her, but towering over the water that surrounds her on all sides. The eye is drawn to her distant, heroic figure. She’s been holding that torch up for so long, she must be tired. But still she stands, resolute, her arm extended.
God Bless America. Happy Independence Day, Neo.
“As I look at the skyline from the Promenade, I know that those towers are missing, but I don’t really register the loss visually.”
If you get the chance, Neo, try to visit the site of the 9/11 Museum (if not the museum itself). They did a wonderful job memorializing the spaces where the towers stood.
Irene:
Since I wrote the piece, I have visited the Memorial, which I thought very well done. The Museum wasn’t open yet, but I absolutely plan to visit it next time I’m in NY with some free time.
Also, I’ve seen the replacement building by now.
A Happy 4th to all.
Drudge is reporting a theft of nuclear material in Mexico. Not very reassuring with a wide open border.
I think it was Ben Franklin who beautifully and simply described Liberty as opposed to Equality:
‘Democracy(“equality”)is two wolves and a lamb sitting down to supper. Liberty is the Lamb coming fully armed and ready to contest the meal.’
Thank God for the precious and utterly unique gift of Liberty.
That quote’s not Ben Franklin. It’s modern. Not only that, but it makes no sense: whoever heard of an armed lamb?
Quote Nazi:
Everybody knows that lambs only have legs.
Every 4th I reads the Declaration of Independence, in private. It is this sentence that causes a lump in my throat and watery eyes. It is a miracle we were victorious, and forgotten the incredible hardship that was endured by the people who won independence
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
With everything to lose, they risked all, and somehow prevailed. God bless them and I wish their spirit was alive today.
Have a Happy 4th.
Their spirit remains here and there. It may be dormant under the ashes and rubble created by the left, but it is still alive. We in the West still have amongst us those who remember and remain true to the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We may be scattered across this fertile land, but we shall abide.
The current situation looks dire, but the enemy is divided by myriad tribal elements, each seeking transcendence over one another as they scrabble to seize power over all. While we on the right side of the bell curve simply want and encourage everyone to be free as sovereign indiviuals.
In the long run, this battle between freedom and totalitarianism must be fought over and over again. We have all been here before… deja vu.
This is a terrific version of the Star Spangled Banner. With our military academy choirs and a trumpet corps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETrr-XHBjE
Here are the other three verses to our national anthem: I leave it to you to guess why we never hear them.
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Hi Neo-neocon,
I have been following your post since I started following Dr. Sanity’s back a few years ago.
I myself have started a few blogs because I have missed reading such things as your blog and Dr Sanity’s blog.
I hope all is going well for you, your follower in the technomorphic field, Bjorn
Beverly:
I know the last verse by heart because we had to memorize it in NYC public school and sing it.
But that was a long time ago. Our principal also used to read the New Testament in assembly at Christmastime.
Quote Nazi: It’s whatcha’call a dag-nabbed metaphor. Got it from Dennis Miller. Snopes says you and Neo are wrong: Sheep got paws just like wolves. This is well and widely known,’Yo.
NeoConScum:
I’m talking about lamb on the dinner table, not on the hoof.
N-Neocon… Ya got me there, Girl!! ((-: