At the feet of the Statue of Liberty, an inscription reads: ‘Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’
Now, 140 years after the famous green lady was gifted to America from France, a lawmaker has suggested it’s time the US gives it back.
MEP Raphaël Glucksmann said: ‘We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: “Give us back the Statue of Liberty.”
‘We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,’ he added.
Glucksmann went on to suggest that France would welcome the government researchers and employees who were fired en masse under the new administration.
‘If you want to fire your best researchers, if you want to fire all the people who, through their freedom and their sense of innovation, their taste for doubt and research, have made your country the world’s leading power, then we’re going to welcome them,’ he said.
The idea for the statue was originally conceived by French politician and US Constitution expert Edouard de Laboulaye as an emblem of the friendship between the French and the Americans and a sign of their mutual desire for liberty.
It was then sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi as a symbol of liberty, justice and democracy.
It took twenty years to build, before it was dismantled and shipped to New York from France. Americans paid for the stone pedestal Lady Liberty stands on today, but the statue itself was a gift from the French.
However, it has taken on other symbolism over the years, having greeted millions of immigrants to the US shores and being seen as their symbol of hope and opportunity for a better life there.
Its official website also explains that the torch held by the Statue of Liberty lights the way to freedom, showing us the path to liberty.
The current torch on the statue was replaced in 1986, and reflects the sun’s rays in the daytime, while at night time it is lit by 16 floodlights.
Meanwhile, the Statue’s left hand holds a tablet of law which is inscribed with the date of American Independence – July 4, 1776.
It measures 151 feet high and is covered in sheets of copper, which eventually turned bright green due to oxidation from moisture.
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