After being storm tossed earlier this year, The Statue of Liberty was opened on Independence Day, in time to stand as an icon as always for American Independence, Freedom, and Patriotism.
Lady Liberty wasn’t damaged much by the storm, but her site was deluged by an autumn storm that took out electrical systems and damaged the nearby immigration museum on Ellis Island, which remains closed.
The Fourth is one of the truly American holidays, celebrated by American songwriter Charles Ives’ “New England Holidays” alongside “Washington’s Birthday” which we now celebrate by proxy on “President’s Day,” “Decoration Day,” now known as memorial day, set to commemorate the Civil War losses, and of course Thanksgiving – but the Fourth of July, or Independence Day is the most quintessentially America as it commemorates when the Declaration of Independence was signed and the nation symbolically became “The United States of America,” a name which first appeared in this document, and which had been named “Free and independent States of America,” by Thomas Paine, the writer of “Common Sense” the pamphlet that fueled revolution fervor.
Security is high on the Fourth, as it is a prominent date many terrorists would love to use to demoralize the American people. With public displays of fireworks being the traditional medium for celebrating patriotism, security necessarily must be high, and so those people protecting our country – policeman, soldiers – must work extra hard on the day set aside to celebrate our independence as a sovereign nation.