Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Thursday, we drove to Jersey City to take the Statue Cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. As we approached the Liberty State Park in Jersey City, I glanced over to the right and I saw the head and shoulders and torch of the Statue of Liberty. I mean—it was RIGHT THERE!! The freakin’ Statue of LIBERTY!!! Yeah, I know. Sometimes I go really over-the-top! But, WTH, bite me!!

The Immigration Museum is incredibly well done. They have taken a difficult subject fraught with multi-faceted conflicts and objectively covered them all. Including the involuntary immigration that that the slave trade accounted for: the 12.5 million Africans that were brought to this country in chains.

And they covered the Chinese who were recruited to come to this country to build railroads and how they quarantined them so they were virtual prisoners.

The “Have’s” vs. the “Have Not’s” is a fable as old as time and as I reflect on the discouragement that I feel over the current situation in our country, I guess it’s a conflict that will never be fully resolved.

Lady Liberty is impressive! Not just because she is such an iconic symbol of what America stands for, but because she is so huge! I wonder what she looked like before the patina turned the copper to green?Read more