COVID-19 (5 Years Later)
Time has gone so fast in the Universe. I remember 1992, 1996, and the year of 2000 just like yesterday. Now, it has been five years since the existence of COVID-19. COVID-19 is even worse than the Spanish flu because of its widespread nature and other reasons. The coronavirus has been researched, debated, and discussed for years. It was caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV2. The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. The virus may have been in existence since November of 2019. There has been a massive debate on its origin. Most scientists believe that the COVID-19 disease was formed in Nature from animals. Most scientists believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus entered into human populations through natural zoonosis, similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV outbreaks, and consistent with other pandemics in human history. To this day, we don't know how COVID-19 formed originally. Social and environmental factors including climate change, natural ecosystem destruction, and wildlife trade increased the likelihood of such zoonotic spillover. The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has decreased in its cases in America, but it is a disease that is no game. It has killed at least 7 million people, and that are the deaths being reported. From 2020 to 2021, the worst of COVID-19 existed with arenas shut down, schools closed, and Zoom remote videos being more commonplace. COVID-19 can strip the human senses of taste and smell. It can damage the lungs, kidneys, and the pulmonary system. Long COVID can last for years, and some people only get COVID-19 for a few days. Severe symptoms of COVID-19 can occur among elderly people and people with pre-existing health conditions (like asthma, diabetes, etc.). Now, there are more than 775 million cases of COVID-19 right now which is totally unprecedented. New COVID-19 vaccines, booster shots, and other preventive measures have saved lives, and we have some people who even believe that COVID-19 is not real when we have the genetic analysis of the virus proving that it is real. At the end of the day, our health is important to protect, defend, and support.
The Definition of COVID
COVID-19 is a coronavirus disease. Many have given it many names, but it is a disease caused by a virus named SARS-CoV 2. It can spread very quickly. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained that CO stands for coronavirus, VI for virus, and D stands for disease, while 19 stands for the year, 2019, that the outbreak was first detected. As such, there has never been a "COVID-1" or any other "COVID-" series disease with a number below 19. On February 11, 2020, the WHO named the disease COVID-19 (short for coronavirus disease 2019). That same day, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) formally announced it had named the causative virus as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) based on its genetic similarity to the 2003 SARS-CoV. The separation between the disease and the causative virus is based on the same nomenclature policies that separate AIDS and the virus that causes it, HIV. Racists from The Epoch Times blame the virus on the CCP or the Chinese Communist Party. The Epoch Times is a far-right newspaper and media company linked with the cult Falun Gong new religious movement. At the end of the day, the virus is COVID-19.
Symptoms and Signs of COVID
There are many symptoms of COVID-19 depending on the type of variant contracted, ranging from mild symptoms to a potentially fatal illness. Common symptoms include coughing, fever, loss of smell (anosima), and taste (ageusia). Other symptoms are headaches, nasal congestion, runny nose, muscle pain, sore throat, diarrhea, eye irritation, toes swelling or turning purple, and in moderate to severe cases, breathing difficulties. People with the COVID-19 infection may have different symptoms, and their symptoms may change over time. Three common clusters of symptoms have been identified: one respiratory symptom cluster with cough, sputum, shortness of breath, and fever; a musculoskeletal symptom cluster with muscle and joint pain, headache, and fatigue; and a cluster of digestive symptoms with abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. In people without prior ear, nose, or throat disorders, loss of taste combined with loss of smell is associated with COVID-19 and is reported in as many as 88% of symptomatic cases. Many people with the coronavirus have no symptoms. At least a third of the people who are infected with the virus do not develop noticeable symptoms at any point in time. These asymptomatic carriers tend not to get tested and can still spread the disease. Other infected people will develop symptoms later (called "pre-symptomatic") or have very mild symptoms and can also spread the virus. As is common with infections, there is a delay, or incubation period, between the moment a person first becomes infected and the appearance of the first symptoms. The median delay for COVID-19 is four to five days possibly being infectious on 1-4 of those days. Most symptomatic people experience symptoms within two to seven days after exposure, and almost all will experience at least one symptom within 12 days. Most people recover from the acute phase of the disease. However, some people continue to experience a range of effects, such as fatigue, for months, even after recovery. This is the result of a condition called Long COVID, which can be described as a range of persistent symptoms that continue for weeks or months at a time. Long-term damage to organs has also been observed after the onset of COVID-19. Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the potential long-term effects of the disease.
Causes and Effects of COIVD
The complications can include pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multi-organ failure, septic shock, and death. Cardiovascular complications may include heart failure, arrhythmias (including atrial fibrillation), heart inflammation, and thrombosis, particularly venous thromboembolism. Approximately 20–30% of people who present with COVID‑19 have elevated liver enzymes, reflecting liver injury. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pregnant women are at increased risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID‑19. This is because pregnant women with COVID‑19 appear to be more likely to develop respiratory and obstetric complications that can lead to miscarriage, premature delivery, and intrauterine growth restriction. Fungal infections such as aspergillosis, candidiasis, cryptococcosis, and mucormycosis have been recorded in patients recovering from COVID‑19.
COVID-19 is mainly transmitted when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets/aerosols and small airborne particles containing the virus. Infected people exhale those particles as they breathe, talk, cough, sneeze, or sing. Transmission is more likely the closer people are. However, infection can occur over longer distances, particularly indoors. The transmission of the virus is carried out through virus-laden fluid particles, or droplets, which are created in the respiratory tract, and they are expelled by the mouth and the nose. There are three types of transmission: “droplet” and “contact”, which are associated with large droplets, and “airborne”, which is associated with small droplets. If the droplets are above a certain critical size, they settle faster than they evaporate, and therefore they contaminate surfaces surrounding them. Droplets that are below a certain critical size, evaporate faster than they settle; due to that fact, they form nuclei that remain airborne for a long period of time over extensive distances. COVID-19 can damage the respiratory system and the nervous system. Many people with COVID-19 exhibit neurological or mental health issues. The virus is not detected in the central nervous system (CNS) of the majority of COVID-19 patients with neurological issues. However, SARS-CoV-2 has been detected at low levels in the brains of those who have died from COVID‑19, but these results need to be confirmed. The coronavirus can harm the human kidneys too.
COVID‑19 can provisionally be diagnosed on the basis of symptoms and confirmed using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or other nucleic acid testing of infected secretions. Along with laboratory testing, chest CT scans may be helpful to diagnose COVID‑19 in individuals with a high clinical suspicion of infection. Detection of a past infection is possible with serological tests, which detect antibodies produced by the body in response to the infection. Swabbing, nucleic acid tests, CT-scans, and other tests can determine COVID-19 on a human being or not.
The Chronology of COVID-19 Events
COVID-19 had a long history since the end of 2019. COVID-19 was born in 2019, and so far, the evidence showed that the virus evolved from Nature. As early as December 2019, Symptoms of the index case, or patient zero, began on 1 December. The man had not been to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. By December 12, 2019, there was a cluster of patients in China’s Hubei Province, in the city of Wuhan, began to experience the symptoms of an atypical pneumonia-like illness that does not respond well to standard treatments. The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in China is informed of several cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology (cause) with symptoms including shortness of breath and fever occurring in Wuhan, China. All initial cases seem connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market by December 31, 2019. By early 2020, COVID-19 had spread rapidly globally. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan is closed amid worries in China of a reprise of the 2002–2004 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus or SARS-CoV-1) outbreak. This was on January 1, 2020. The virus spreads rapidly across China in January of 2020. By January 5th, 2020, CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) activated a center-level response to investigate this novel pneumonia of unknown etiology.
The genetic sequence for the atypical pneumonia virus, Wuhan-Hu-1, is submitted to the Department of Zoonoses, National Institute of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in Beijing, China by Yong-Zhen Zhang of Fudan University, Shanghai. The complete genetic sequence of the virus remains unavailable to the rest of the world as the virus spreads. The Thailand Ministry of Public Health confirms the first laboratory-confirmed case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus outside of China by January 13, 2020. By January 19, 2020, the virus spreads to Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. By January 17, 2020, CDC will begin screening passengers for symptoms of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus on direct and connecting flights from Wuhan, China to San Francisco, California, New York City, New York, and Los Angeles, California and plans to expand screenings to other major airports in the U.S. On January 20, 2020, CDC reported the first laboratory-confirmed case of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the U.S. from samples taken on January 18 in Washington state and on the same day activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to respond to the emerging outbreak. The first American case of COVID-19 was on January 21, 2020. The COVID-19 virus has spread across the globe. On January 26, 2020, the virus spread into California, Arizona, and other locations like Macau, Hong Kong. The WHO issued situation reports about the virus. By late January, the virus goes into Europe, South America, and other places. The UAE has victims of the virus. Over 100 people have died from the virus in China alone by early February 2020.
COVID spread into India and the Philippines in February too. On February 9, 2020, the virus killed 811 people with total cases being above 40,000 people. The virus grows constantly. By late February 2020, the President issues travel restrictions to Iran. There was the DOD COVID-19 Task Force too. Debbie Birx was the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. March 2020 changed everything in the world. This was when the President signed the COVID-19 bill, passing 8.3 billion dollars for crisis response for relief that's non-DOD. Italy created its country-wide lockdown on March 8, 2020. This was the new era of COVID-19 where lockdowns started to happen globally by March of 2020 including in America. In mid-March 2020, tons of sports arenas, schools, restaurants, and businesses were closed in the United States of America plus the world because of the spread of COVID-19. The government promoted labs and N9 respirators nationwide. Travel restrictions happen in Europe for 30 days starting on March 13, 2020. The President, who was Donald Trump, addressed the nation. On March 11, 2020, the WHO called COVID-19 a pandemic. The President called COVID-19 a national emergency. Zoom and telecommunications have increased to allow people to talk and work without contracting the virus. Statewide stay-at-home existed in California on March 19, 2020. By this time, debates exist about health safety and human liberties.
We should have civil and human liberties, but in a healthcare emergency, selfishness is not an option. People should follow legitimate safety guidelines not risking death out of making liberty a fetish. By late March 2020, hospitals nationwide and worldwide are overwhelmed to capacity. It has gotten so bad that the U.S. government had to use Navy ships to house patients. Clinical trials exist. The CARES Act was passed to help Americans with payments on March 27, 2020. Vaccines develop and deaths pass the 100,000 mark by May 28, 2020. Over 2 million American cases existed by June 10, 2020. Anthony Fauci on June 30, 2020, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that new COVID-19 cases could hit 100,000 people per day. By July 2, 2020, California and Indiana postpone or reverse plans to reopen their economies. By July 7, 2020, more than 3 million infections exist in America. Masks mandates exist and the race was on to finish vaccines in dealing with COVID-19. By September 2020, we know that COVID-19 can be airborne, and it can spread in reinfection. Trump had COVID-19 by October 2020. The cases of COVID spiked by October 15, 2020. October saw global cases increase to more than 40 million people.
Gilead's Remdesivir was the first COVID-19 drug approved by the FDA. 100,000 cases of COVID per day happened by November 4, 2020. By November 9, 2020, Joe Biden was elected President. By the end of December 2020, the FDA starts to approve the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. From 2021 to the present, there have been massive COVID-19 historical developments. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine was in order too. By 2021, a fierce debate occurred about not only about mandates but also mandatory vaccinations to have jobs. The vast majority of Americans by 2024 have at least one vaccination shot, but tons of people oppose COVID-19 vaccinations. By March 11, 2021, Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law, which includes funding for COVID-19 vaccinations, expanded unemployment benefits, rental assistance, extending child tax credits, and giving people direct cash payments of up to $1,400. These actions helped to save millions of lives literally. The CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky extended the eviction moratorium through June 30, 2021, to try to stop the spread of COVID-19. By the end of 2021, schools start to re-open. Also, by this time, many people have booster shots. By early 2022, there will be a growth of new COVID-19 variants like Delta and Omicron. New York state had its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day since the pandemic began with 114,082 cases. 2021 and 2022 saw the most massive increases of the COVID-19 virus statistically. By the end of 2022, policies of mask mandates, vaccinations, booster shots, and the growth of Omicron existed. From 2023 to 2024, COVID 19 has declined in many places of the world. Death has lowered, but COVID-19 is still a very serious virus. A high number of cases still exist in many places like Malaysia and New Zealand. According to Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center of Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston said that the severity of COVID-19 is lower than years ago not because of the variants being less robust but because the immune responses are higher. Most people hospitalized now are people ages 75 and up and babies. The symptoms have milder, less severe issues.
Prevention and Treatments
There are many treatments and prevention measures in dealing with COVID1-9. The FDA has authorized and approved many antiviral medications used to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in people who are more likely to get very sick. There are antiviral medications that target specific parts of the virus to stop it from multiplying in the body once someone is infected. These medications help to prevent severe illness and death. Many doctors have helped people with the virus to have diverse medications and treatments too. Many doctors have recommended people take Nirmaterelvir (with Ritonavir (Paxlovid), Remdesivir, and Molnupiravir (Lagevrio) depending on age and symptoms. Some treatments are taken orally, and some are taken via IV or intravenous infusions. There are many ways to reduce the chances of catching COVID-19. People can use the distance between people, eat healthily, use hygiene in a great way, avoid people who are sick or have symptoms, wash your hands using soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and clean and disinfect surfaces that are often touched, including doorknobs. COVID vaccines can reduce the people with COVID from having death. Wearing masks in many places can reduce the chance of getting the virus too.
Conclusion
COVID-19 is one of the most mysterious illnesses in human history. It is a very dangerous virus that has harmed and killed millions of people in the human family. The COVID-19 pandemic was the first pandemic of this magnitude since over a century ago with Spanish influenza. The virus started back in late 2019. It spread globally rapidly by early 2020. 2020 was one of the most important years in human history. It was a time of a recession worldwide (including in America), the lockdown of whole countries, and people wearing masks everywhere in the street. There have been massive debates about masks and the vaccine, but people have to experience legitimate health care regardless of background. We ought to act like we live in the 21st century filled with progressive thinking, not ignorance. COVID-19 polarized the nation in many ways, because some people believed in fanatical, false views like COVID-19 is a hoax or that the virus is just like a common cold. Scientific studies document that COVID-19 is much more powerful and dangerous than the common cold. COVID-19 is not as prevalent as it was in 2020, but it is still around globally. People have to take their health seriously, especially knowing about racial and class health disparities. We have to use real understanding in trying to save as many lives as possible. I will always remember COVID-19 and be further inspired to move forward in life.
The Statue of Liberty's 140th Year Anniversary
We live in the 140th year anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. It was a large neoclassical sculpture that is found on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City. It has been one of the most important images of American society like The Grand Canyon, The Arch at St. Louis, Mount Rushmore, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The statue was a gift designed by French sculptor and Freemason Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. It was dedicated on October 28, 1886. It has been a tourist location for over one century. There are tons of symbolism relating to the structure from the figure, the torch, and the words on it. That will be explained in full detail without question. The statue wanted to commemorate the national abolition of slavery after the American Civil War. It has been a symbol of freedom for many people including immigrants who saw it near Ellis Island by the late 19th century and early 20th century. During that time, millions of Greek people, Irish people, Afro-Caribbean people, Italian people, Jewish people, and other human beings came to Ellis Island to escape religious, economic, political, and social persecution. Many of the same hypocrites now, who want all migrants to be deported (with an evil xenophobic motivation), were a product of their ancestors who braved waters and survived nearly from death to come to America as immigrants. These same hypocrites omit the following facts too: the original language of the Americas thousands of years ago wasn't English, the Pilgrims came to America without Visas or immigration papers, and all immigrants shouldn't be blamed for all evil in the world. That is why we show respect to immigrants who seek a better life legitimately. My ancestors were in chains in America, and my black ancestors fought hard also to advance the cause of justice and freedom heroically. The idea for the statue was born in 1865 when the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument to commemorate the upcoming centennial of U.S. independence (1876), the perseverance of American democracy, and the liberation of the nation's slaves. The irony is that while the Statue of Liberty depicted liberty, we have a crossroads in American society. There are the enemies of truth who desire to whitewash black history, suppress the rights of minorities, and wish to have progressive blessings abolished that numerous human beings take for granted. It is the perfect time, and we live in the right generation to allow the true story of the Statue of Liberty to be presented to the public fully.
The History of the Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty has a long history. According to the National Park Service, the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time. The project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor. In an after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in the American Civil War, is supposed to have said: "If a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort—a common work of both our nations." The National Park Service, in a 2000 report, however, deemed this a legend traced to an 1885 fundraising pamphlet, and that the statue was most likely conceived in 1870. In another essay on their website, the Park Service suggested that Laboulaye was minded honoring the Union victory and its consequences, "With the abolition of slavery and the Union's victory in the Civil War in 1865, Laboulaye's wishes of freedom and democracy were turning into a reality in the United States. To honor these achievements, Laboulaye proposed that a gift be built for the United States on behalf of France. Laboulaye hoped that by calling attention to the recent achievements of the United States, the French people would be inspired to call for their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy."
According to sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who later recounted the story, Laboulaye's alleged comment was not intended as a proposal, but it inspired Bartholdi. Given the repressive nature of the regime of Napoleon III, Bartholdi took no immediate action on the idea except to discuss it with Laboulaye. Bartholdi was in any event busy with other possible projects; in the late 1860s, he approached Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, with a plan to build Progress or Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia, a huge lighthouse in the form of an ancient Egyptian female fellah or peasant, robed and holding a torch aloft, at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal in Port Said. Sketches and models were made of the proposed work, though it was never erected. There was a classical precedent for the Suez proposal, the Colossus of Rhodes: an ancient bronze statue of the Greek god of the sun, Helios. This statue is believed to have been over 100 feet (30 m) high, and it similarly stood at a harbor entrance and carried a light to guide ships. Both the Khedive and Ferdinand de Lesseps, developer of the Suez Canal, declined the proposed statue from Bartholdi, citing the high cost. The Port Said Lighthouse was built instead, by François Coignet in 1869. Bartholdi was involved in the Franco-Prussian War as a major of a militia. Bartholdi worked with Laboulaye to discuss the idea of the State of Liberty with influential Americans. By June 1871, Bartholdi crossed the Atlantic with letters of introduction signed by Laboulaye. Bartholdi went to the New York Harbor and wanted Liberty Island to be the site of the statue. He gained support from President Ulysses S. Grant after he visited him and other human beings. Bartholdi and Laboulaye waited before using a public campaign. Bartholdi made the first model of his concept in 1870. He would be inspired by his 1880 Lion of Belfort sculpture.
By 1875, France had political stability, and the Centennial Exposition was coming up. So, Bartholdi and Laboulaye sought public support for the creation of the Statue of Liberty. In September 1875, he announced the project and the formation of the Franco-American Union as its fundraising arm. With the announcement, the statue was given a name, Liberty Enlightening the World. The French people were to finance the statue (contrary to the common misconception of it being funded by the French national government); and Americans would be expected to pay for the pedestal. The announcement provoked a generally favorable reaction in France, though many Frenchmen resented the United States for not coming to their aid during the war with Prussia. French monarchists opposed the statute, if for no other reason than it was proposed by the liberal Laboulaye, who had recently been elected a senator for life. Laboulaye arranged events designed to appeal to the rich and powerful, including a special performance at the Paris Opera on April 25, 1876, that featured a new cantata by the composer Charles Gounod. The piece was titled La Liberté éclairant le monde, the French version of the statue's announced name. American and French people raised funds to help construct the statue. Although plans for the statue had not been finalized, Bartholdi moved forward with the fabrication of the right arm, bearing the torch, and the head. Work began at the Gaget, Gauthier & Co. workshop. In May 1876, Bartholdi traveled to the United States as a member of a French delegation to the Centennial Exhibition and arranged for a huge painting of the statue to be shown in New York as part of the Centennial festivities.
On March 3, 1877, on his final full day in office, President Grant signed a joint resolution that authorized the President to accept the statue when it was presented by France and to select a site for it. President Rutherford B. Hayes, who took office the following day, selected the Bedloe's Island site that Bartholdi had proposed. The construction of the statue head started in France in 1877 with Bartholdi. 250,000 francs were raised to help complete the head. The head and arm had been built with assistance from Viollet-le-Duc, who fell ill in 1879. He soon died, leaving no indication of how he intended to transition from the copper skin to his proposed masonry pier. The following year, Bartholdi was able to obtain the services of the innovative designer and builder Gustave Eiffel. Eiffel and his structural engineer, Maurice Koechlin, decided to abandon the pier and instead build an iron truss tower. Eiffel opted not to use a completely rigid structure, which would force stresses to accumulate in the skin and lead eventually to cracking. A secondary skeleton was attached to the center pylon, then, to enable the statue to move slightly in the winds of New York Harbor, and, since the metal would expand on hot summer days, he loosely connected the support structure to the skin using flat iron bars. Eiffel and Bartholdi worked together. By 1882, the statue was finished by its waist. In 1882, Americans aided money for the statue.
As part of one such effort, an auction of art and manuscripts, poet Emma Lazarus was asked to donate an original work. She initially declined, stating she could not write a poem about a statue. At the time, she was also involved in aiding refugees to New York who had fled antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe. These refugees were forced to live in conditions that the wealthy Lazarus had never experienced. She saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue. The resulting sonnet, "The New Colossus", including the lines "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", is uniquely identified with the Statue of Liberty in American culture and is inscribed on a plaque in its museum. By June 17, 1885, the French ship called Isere carried crates in New York City. 200,000 people lined the docks and hundreds of boats welcomed the ship. Many architects and engineers built the structure in New York City. The pedestal was created. There was a light. After the skin was completed, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, co-designer of Manhattan's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, supervised a cleanup of Bedloe's Island in anticipation of the dedication.
Its Symbolism and Design
There are tons of symbolism in the Statue of Liberty. Bartholdi and Laboulaye wanted to use imagery to represent American liberty. They wanted the statue to represent the concept of Liberty from Libertas, the goddess of freedom widely worshipped in ancient Rome, especially among emancipated slaves. A Liberty figure adorned most American coins of the time, and representations of Liberty appeared in popular and civic art, including Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom (1863) atop the dome of the United States Capitol Building. The statue's design evokes iconography evident in ancient history including the Egyptian goddess Isis, the ancient Greek deity of the same name, the Roman Columbia and the Christian iconography of the Virgin Mary. Artists of the 18th and 19th centuries striving to evoke republican ideals commonly used representations of Libertas as an allegorical symbol. A figure of Liberty was also depicted on the Great Seal of France. Bartholdi was a Freemason, so Freemasonry influenced his thinking on how the Statue of Liberty would be constructed.
Bartholdi made alterations to the design as the project evolved. Bartholdi considered having Liberty hold a broken chain but decided this would be too divisive in the days after the Civil War. The erected statue does stride over a broken chain, half-hidden by her robes and difficult to see from the ground. Bartholdi was initially uncertain of what to place in Liberty's left hand; he settled on a tabula ansata, used to evoke the concept of law. Though Bartholdi greatly admired the United States Constitution, he chose to inscribe JULY IV MDCCLXXVI on the tablet, thus associating the date of the country's Declaration of Independence with the concept of liberty. Bartholdi interested his friend and mentor, architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, in the project. As chief engineer, Viollet-le-Duc designed a brick pier within the statue, to which the skin would be anchored. After consultations with the metalwork foundry Gaget, Gauthier and Co., Viollet-le-Duc chose the metal that would be used for the skin, copper sheets, and the method used to shape it, repoussé, in which the sheets were heated and then struck with wooden hammers. An advantage of this choice was that the entire statue would be light for its volume, as the copper need be only 0.094 inches (2.4 mm) thick. Bartholdi had decided on a height of just over 151 feet (46 m) for the statue, double that of Italy's Sancarlone and the German statue of Arminius, both made with the same method.
The Dedication
There is the ceremony of dedication of the United States Statue of Liberty was held on the afternoon of October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the event. On the morning of the dedication, a parade was held in New York City; estimates of the number of people who watched it ranged from several hundred thousand to a million. President Cleveland headed the procession, then stood in the reviewing stand to see bands and marchers from across America. General Stone was the grand marshal of the parade. The route began at Madison Square, once the venue for the arm, and proceeded to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan by way of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, with a slight detour so the parade could pass in front of the World Building on Park Row. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders threw ticker tape from the windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade.
A nautical parade began at 12:45 p.m., and President Cleveland embarked on a yacht that took him across the harbor to Bedloe's Island for the dedication. Lesseps made the first speech, on behalf of the French committee, followed by the chairman of the New York committee, Senator William M. Evarts. A French flag draped across the statue's face was to be lowered to unveil the statue at the close of Evarts's speech, but Bartholdi mistook a pause as the conclusion and let the flag fall prematurely. The ensuing cheers put an end to Evarts's address. President Cleveland spoke next, stating that the statue's "stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world." Bartholdi, observed near the dais, was called upon to speak, but he declined. Orator Chauncey M. Depew concluded the speechmaking with a lengthy address. No members of the general public were permitted on the island during the ceremonies, which were reserved entirely for dignitaries. The only women granted access were Bartholdi's wife and Lesseps's granddaughter; officials stated that they feared women might be injured in the crush of people. The restriction offended area suffragists, who chartered a boat and got as close as they could to the island. The group's leaders made speeches applauding the embodiment of Liberty as a woman and advocating women's right to vote. A scheduled fireworks display was postponed until November 1 because of poor weather.
Shortly after the dedication, The Cleveland Gazette, an African American newspaper, suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until the United States became a free nation "in reality" as found in this quote: "...Liberty enlightening the world," indeed! The expression makes us sick. This government is a howling farce. It can not or rather does not protect its citizens within its own borders. Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the "liberty" of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and industrious colored man to earn a respectable living for himself and family, without being ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the "liberty" of this country "enlightening the world," or even Patagonia, is ridiculous in the extreme..."
The Modern Statue of Liberty
After the dedication ceremony, the Statue of Liberty was controlled by the United States Lighthouse Board in 1887. Bartholdi came to America in 1893 to make more suggestions but his suggestions failed. He did succeed in improving lighting within the statue, allowing visitors to better appreciate Eiffel's design. From 1933 to 1982, the Statue of Liberty was controlled by the NPS or the National Park Service, starting during the days of President Franklin Roosevelt. The Statue of Liberty had an Army building and the eleven-pointed walls of Fort Wood, which still form the statue's base. During World War II, the Statue of Liberty was opened to the public. In 1972, the immigration museum in the statue's base was finally opened in a ceremony led by President Richard Nixon. The museum's backers never provided it with an endowment to secure its future and it closed in 1991 after the opening of an immigration museum on Ellis Island.
In 1970, Ivy Bottini led a demonstration at the statue where she and others from the National Organization for Women's New York chapter draped an enormous banner over a railing which read "WOMEN OF THE WORLD UNITE!" Beginning December 26, 1971, 15 anti-Vietnam War veterans occupied the statue, flying a US flag upside down from her crown. They left on December 28 following a federal court order. The statue was also several times taken over briefly by demonstrators who were publicizing causes such as Puerto Rican independence, opposition to abortion, and opposition to US intervention in Grenada. Demonstrations with the permission of the Park Service included a Gay Pride Parade rally and the annual Captive Baltic Nations rally. A powerful new lighting system was installed in advance of the American Bicentennial in 1976. The statue was the focal point for Operation Sail, a regatta of tall ships from all over the world that entered New York Harbor on July 4, 1976, and sailed around Liberty Island. The day concluded with a spectacular display of fireworks near the statue. From 1982 to 2000, it was a time when the Statue of Liberty had renovations and rededication. American and French engineers helped to renovate the statue. The original torch was removed and replaced in 1986 with the current one, whose flame is covered in 24-karat gold. July 3–6, 1986, was designated "Liberty Weekend", marking the centennial of the statue and its reopening. President Reagan presided over the rededication, with French President François Mitterrand in attendance. July 4 saw a reprise of Operation Sail, and the statue was reopened to the public on July 5. In Reagan's dedication speech, he stated, "We are the keepers of the flame of liberty; we hold it high for the world to see." From 2001 to the present, the Statue of Liberty had many closures and reopenings. After 9/11, the Statue of Liberty was closed to the public. It reopened by the end of 2001.
The statue, including the pedestal and base, closed on October 29, 2011, for the installation of new elevators and staircases and to bring other facilities, such as restrooms, up to code. The statue was reopened on October 28, 2012, but then closed again a day later in advance of Hurricane Sandy. Although the storm did not harm the statue, it destroyed some of the infrastructure on both Liberty and Ellis Islands, including the dock used by the ferries that ran to Liberty and Ellis Islands. On November 8, 2012, a Park Service spokesperson announced that both islands would remain closed for an indefinite period for repairs to be done.
Since Liberty Island had no electricity, a generator was installed to power temporary floodlights to illuminate the statue at night. The superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, David Luchsinger—whose home on the island was severely damaged—stated that it would be "optimistically ... months" before the island was reopened to the public. The statue and Liberty Island reopened to the public on July 4, 2013. Ellis Island remained closed for repairs for several more months but reopened in late October 2013. On October 7, 2016, construction started on the new Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island. The new $70 million, 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) museum may be visited by all who come to the island, as opposed to the museum in the pedestal, which only 20% of the island's visitors had access to. The new museum, designed by FXFOWLE Architects, is integrated with the surrounding parkland. Diane von Fürstenberg headed the fundraising for the museum, and the project received over $40 million in fundraising by groundbreaking. The museum opened on May 16, 2019. The statue is situated in Upper New York Bay on Liberty Island south of Ellis Island, which together comprise the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Both islands were ceded by New York to the federal government in 1800. Visitors to the Statue of Liberty use ferries. All ferry riders have to do security screening, similar to airport procedures, before boarding.
Visitors intending to enter the statue's base and pedestal must obtain pedestal access for a nominal fee when purchasing their ferry ticket. Those wishing to climb the staircase within the statue to the crown must purchase a special ticket, which may be reserved up to a year in advance. A total of 240 people per day can ascend: ten per group, three groups per hour. Climbers may bring only medication and cameras—lockers are provided for other items—and must undergo a second security screening. The balcony around the torch was closed to the public following the munitions explosion on Black Tom Island in 1916. The balcony can however be seen live via webcam.
An Important Point
There is an important point about the Statue of Liberty that must be known. We know about the elephant in the room. The Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of America for a long time. To many people it represented freedom, and it was one major image that new immigrants saw when they came into Ellis Island. Those of Ellis Island came from Europe, the Caribbean, and other places of the world to seek opportunity, justice, and a better way of life. Today, we have a rise in xenophobic attitudes based on xenophobia, lies, racism, and ignorance. Some of these xenophobes act like English was the first language spoken in America. The reality is that America originally was not inhabited by Europeans, and the first Americans never spoke English. Originally, Native Americans were in the Americas, and they spoke a diversity of languages spanning centuries and thousands of years. The Golden Rule remains true, and it means that you treat your neighbor as yourself. On many occasions, immigrants are our neighbors. Therefore, immigrants should not be treated better than us, but they shouldn't be treated less than us either. That point is what the white racists, the xenophobes, many Hoteps, and other people fail to comprehend. There is no solution involving mass deportation. There can only be a fair, comprehensive solution to rectify immigration issues. Those solutions are about enacting fair treatment under the law and expressing human compassion simultaneously. All people are created equal (that includes immigrants too) and are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In our time, we have to defend democracy. Democracy is about our human rights, our right to live on this Earth, and the destruction of fascism in society. That is why we must use grassroots efforts to make sure that democracy is preserved forevermore.
Conclusion
The Statue of Liberty has been in existence since October 28, 1886. Millions of tourists now have visited the location which stands over 151 feet tall. From using elevators to seeing the view of the downtown of New York City, its imagery is breathtaking. It has been more than a cultural image of New York City. It has been a major part of American culture. Its symbolism is very diverse in dealing with the image of Liberty, the tablet with the date of 1776, and the flame. The statue itself is a figure of Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty. It shows a classical contrapposto pose. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left-hand carries the tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (or July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals. That is the date of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence). The sculptor of the image was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The image shows the image of the woman with her left foot stepping on a broken chain and shackle to commemorate the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War. The seven spiked crowns on her head. Those crowns represent the seven continents and seas of the world. The Statue of Liberty was proposed in 1865 by French historian and abolitionist Edouard de Laboulaye. After almost 140 years, the Statue of Liberty remains. We live in a crossroads in our history. There is a constant battle between those who want democratic freedom and those who desire an authoritarian society to reign wherefore basic human rights are restricted among the people. Therefore, we have to not only support democracy. We have to continue to live by the principles of human equality and justice in our daily lives. We believe that human rights are meant for all people, regardless of color or background.
By Timothy
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