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Letter: Liberty must be balanced

October 15, 2010

Dear Editor,

For 126 years, the Statue of Liberty has stood on Liberty Island in New York Bay, the entrance to New York City. The statue, 152 feet tall and resting upon a pedestal that is 150 feet tall, is in the form of a woman holding a torch in her uplifted hand.

Known as Lady Liberty, the statue was, for many years, the first glimpse hopeful immigrants seeking a new beginning in a land of opportunity had of America. The Statue of Liberty has become one of this nation’s best known national monuments, and it is an inspiration to many Americans who visit and admire it each year.

Commemorating the American Revolution and the French Revolution, the Statue of Liberty was designed by F.A. Bartholdi, a French sculptor, and presented to the people of the United States by France in 1884. As no other monument, the Statue of Liberty embodies the spirit of America, and it has become a powerful symbol of liberty to the rest of the world.

The liberty the statue represents is best defined as the sum of the rights possessed in common by the people. In the United States of America, that liberty, so precious to many citizens of the land, is based upon the rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States that was adopted in 1789.

But liberty without responsibility can be dangerous; it may lead to anarchy, an uncontrolled condition where there is lawless disorder and chaotic violence. To avoid that danger, liberty must be balanced with responsibility. So, those who love liberty must assume responsibility for preserving it. Viktor Frankel, survivor of Nazi death camps, was right when he wrote that liberty “is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.” Therefore, to emphasize the necessity of balancing liberty with responsibility, Frankel recommended that “the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”

Howard Coop
Lancaster

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