The Statue of Liberty has opened for visitors for the first time since 9/11. Perhaps the flaming torch on the old lady of democracy provides a glimmer of hope to American sensibilities.
Mind you, nowadays while you can again go into the Statue of Liberty you can no longer go up to the crown for security reasons. A glimmer of hope, perhaps, but the flaming torch appears to some jaundiced eyes to be something of a smoking flax in need of Jesus's gentle mercy. You can go as high as the statue's feet - enjoying the indignity of a new anti-bomb device that blasts air into your clothing to detect particles of explosive residue. Not quite what the original framers of the Constitution had in mind to gild their well worn evocative phrases in praise of Liberty.
Terrorism remains the news in America, as in much of the rest of the world as well. While recently in Manchester airport I was little surprised to notice machine-gun-carrying bobbies, it is surprising that a local railway station in our New Haven in Connecticut (albeit near Yale University) has recently become patrolled by the National Guard, rifles and all.
