Statue of Liberty - A French and American Statement of Freedom

I was looking around for a photo to use in the heading.  (I can't for the life of me make the photos smaller.)  And I came across this one.  The Statue of Liberty embodies the pride I feel as an American. 

We have taken several cruises to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.  Once we left from Boston MA (birthplace of American Freedom) and the other time we left from New York, NY.  I took this photo as we were sailing past the glorious lady given to us by France, and thought it was fitting tribute to both liberty and freedom in the light of what is happening in France right now.

Many years ago in France, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to create a gift to the US following the close of the War Between the States in 1865.  Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel created the internal steel structure inside the statue that allowed the copper sheeting skin to shift in the harbor winds.  Bartholdi modeled the face after his own mother.  In 1885 our Lady Liberty was completed in France, disassembled and packed in over 200 crates, shipped to the US on the French frigate Isere and reassembled on an island in New York's harbor.

This was one of the first sights my grandfather saw as he arrived as a legal immigrant from Sicily with his parents early in the 1900's.  My grandmothers also sailed into the harbor in New York from their home countries of Denmark and Germany somewhat earlier in the late 1890s. Well, the Danish grandmother was the only one born here, but she was born in 1897 shortly after her parents arrived here in America.

They all wanted to be part of the great country of America and immediately began to embrace the customs and language as their own.  All of my grandparents grew up speaking only English and worked hard all their lives to give their children the American dream as well.

They BUILT America, not tore it down.  They were too busy working to protest.

We need a strong President who will acknowledge the threat to our great country now, and work  to keep American Freedoms strong.

Homeland Security already has me on their list because we have been involved with the Tea Party for the last 8 years.  And there was that Colorado airport thing. So, if they are monitoring me, will you come visit  me in Federal prison?