Statue of Liberty

 

The world needs a new Statue of Liberty -- probably a new human figure of defiant and heroic liberty. A statue which is animated, dynamic, powerful, and vibrant. We need a figure which is a triumphant conqueror over slavery, barbarism, and evil.

The current, 1886, New York City statue is out of date and no longer up to standard. It's well past its prime and no longer gets the symbol-of-freedom job done. At this point, it's fairly close to an empty, meaningless cliché. And it certainly has a dreadful and entirely unacceptable poem closely associated with it. ("Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses... The wretched refuge...") The statue is going to need a new one of these too.

The current Statue features a modestly-clad woman, rather timidly holding aloft a torch or beacon, while clutching an ambiguous book. The new statue should maybe come from the world of comic-book heroics and feature a flashily-dressed male paladin boldly brandishing a sword or gun or his fists (to attack the bad guys), while also possibly holding a shield (to ward off evil). He might also be holding some formidable book/books such as from Aristotle, Cicero, Jefferson, or Rand.

Perhaps there should be 3 to 5 versions of it -- all outstanding works of art, if possible. This will likely help keep the idea and ideal of liberty fresh and new. 

Maybe one Greco-Roman, one Revolutionary Warish, one modern, one very stylized, and one cartoonish. Possibly holding the severed heads of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao in the left hand, and a Roman, Renaissance, or Samuri heavy sword in the right. Could also hold heads of Roosevelt, Johnson, and Biden -- or somewhat generalized and universalized versions of them.  

Probably it should be clear that this indomitable champion of freedom is ferociously fighting, and about to crush, a hated super-villain or horrific tyrant -- but not committing any sort of crime or act of aggression. The posture and attitude of the new Statue/Statues of Liberty should be vivacious, dynamic, defiant, and heroic.