Letters to Ms. Liberty

As if you need another reminder, America's midterm election is next week. Unlike many midterms, this will be one of the most important elections in American history.  From now to the day after the election, I've decided to keep my ramblings a bit more lighthearted, possibly historical, and possibly about our culture, with fewer reminders about... Well, you know. But I won't stop reminding you to VOTE!  Let's visit the Statue of Liberty, shall we?  Today is a big anniversary for her. President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated her on October 28, 1886, on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor. She originally started as an idea over dinner, near Paris in 1865, when French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a gift from the people of France to the United States to celebrate the centennial of the Declaration of Independence and the end of slavery. She would be known as " Liberty Enlightening the World."  French  sculptor Frédéric-Augu...