The Tears of Lady Liberty

The Lady stood motionless through the long night with her eyes unblinking as she looked out at the churning Atlantic Ocean. Her exquisite features glowed in the pale blue moonlight with a ghostly greenish hue. The moon had just set far to the west behind her as she awaited the first pink glow of dawn far to the east. Cold waves were lashing around her feet as she stood there as though frozen in time. Her demanding task weighed heavily in this hour. Her life’s mission was at stake. There was nervousness in the air.

She had many visitors the previous day. Happy people, sad people, complaining people, grateful people. She saw those as they stood in line to pay her a visit and felt her never-ending pity for many of them and a welcome to all of them. She knew that many of her visitors in recent days would not be able to grasp her message. This thought worried her through the years.

The east Europeans were some of her first guests. She would often watch their tears roll down their cheeks hardened by duress, and felt such pity. She was delighted when so many came in, ship after ship.

As the years wore on, her bronze tone features began to tarnish and become greenish-blue. She was delighted to see Asians and Africans and Indians arriving in the harbor near her abode. Still, as her eyes continually searched the eastern horizon, she always longed to see more ships come.

This early morning was different and she knew it. Sea gulls which had hidden themselves away during the long dark hours were slowly beginning to assemble and circle around near the splashing salty spray at her feet. The pink glow of approaching dawn was causing the inky blue night sky to slowly fade into pastel hues of purple and orange and yellow; no hind of red on the horizon. Sailors would say this would be a perfect day. It would not be.

The Lady first appeared thousands of miles to the east near Paris. She was forged from copper, iron and bronze in France. Her completed head adorned with a crown of spikes stood on a display by proud and grateful French citizens long before her journey across the Atlantic Ocean. The massive form of her flowing robed figure was finally assembled and hoisted upon a small island off the coast of the newly burgeoning city of the New York metropolis of the late 1800s, in the New York harbor. Upon that tiny island later called Liberty Island, she was raised with her arm and torch welded on in a glorious display of the triumph of freedom.

Her polished face of copper took on the natural pale green tone of age and her feet were planted on the major entry into America. She would witness more than a century of human drama as no other place on Earth. Millions of human souls would come to her silhouetted form with hopes of a new life of freedom. And they would find it. Millions and billions of dollars of commerce would swirl around her feet as ships of cargo passed by, and she would soon see warships embarking for Europe to fight global wars. Her steel blue eyes would peer into the distance to see enemy submarines which would dare to approach the eastern coastline. Her face would reflect the brilliant bursts of color each July 4th, as a young nation celebrated her each year. Yet in all of her history, she would stand unwavering and steadfast, thwarting every blast of hurricane force winds.

She was a gift from a grateful people who learned in the most painful way that liberty can only hold at bay the oppression of tyranny. She was sent to America by a people who had once trembled under the cruelty of the Reign of Terror after the fall of their King Louis 16th . There were people who understood the magnificence of Lady Liberty’s message. Yet many in the land she now guards do not.

The first who came to visit her this strange morning was a small family of Arab descent, arriving much too early. The humble little family was attired in their best clothing, far more formally dressed than the average tourist would be. They were from Algeria. The wife and her two daughters had the same dark blue head coverings. The husband carefully guided them to a waiting area and nervously kept looking at his watch.

They had only been in America a few days and he was so eager to share the beauties of this new land with his young family. As they quietly spoke with one another in French , a statue maintenance worker strolled by and gave a polite nod.

The Lady looked down on the family with tender concern and returned her stare to vigilantly scan the southeastern horizon. Suddenly the small gathering of sea gulls which had been lazily circling the waters below the statue took on rapid flight for seemingly no reason. Flying in a straight line seaward, their absence left a strange quietness around the entire Liberty Island.

“Bon bons, mes filles?” said the father as he offered his daughters some chocolate candy he had purchased before they arrived. The mother gently protested that chocolate shouldn't be given to the girls so early in the day, and one of the girls then folded her arms in a mild protest. The sun had now risen much higher, revealing a deep blue September sky. The father looked with admiration at the skyline of thousands of buildings and skyscrapers and sat down by his wife. They were expecting a happy day in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The Lady’s eyes can see what human eyes cannot see. She can see far into the past and she can see far into the future. Her voiceless stare never reveals her thoughts. No words leave her cold lips, yet she often speaks. But in this very moment on that early morning hour, it seemed that there was a sound from her lips…a metallic mournful groan!

The maintenance worker heard the same sound that the father heard and yelled over to the family with a strong Brooklyn accent, “The good old Lady seems to be waking up, don’t you know? Guess it’s the wind on those support beams at the foundation. Nothin’ to worry over! Well, I’m on my way. You guys enjoy your visit. They will begin the first tour within the hour!”

The young Algerian father heard the sound of groaning once again and noticed that his wife and daughters did as well.

The older daughter asked, “Papa, will it be safe for us to go to the top? It did make a noise, did it not?”

“Ah, ma petite, it’s only the wind. Wait till you see the view from up there! Just as few more minutes! “ he said trying to console her.

Lady Liberty’s eyes were cast to never move of course. She was merely a manmade elaborate symbol, a gift from France to show appreciation for America’s message of freedom to the entire world. Yet, though her eyes didn't move to the northeastern skies, she did focus her gaze with absolute clarity on the harbor north of Long Island. What she saw caused a third metallic groan to reverberate through the entire statue.

For in her eyes that see what mere humans cannot see, she spied in the distance a tiny silver speck approaching her direction. And as the seconds passed it was clear she was looking at Flight 11 of United Airlines. As the jet arched over Ellis Island and lowered toward Manhattan, a gigantic tear formed in the corner of her eye and slowly began to roll down her face toward her flowing robe. She knew…it had begun.