Dale Chihuly, "Flame of Liberty"
Today was interesting. The last official day of project – though I have no intention of ending my independent study in what is essentially the art of living intellectually – found me at the National Liberty Museum downtown. My time there was limited by the increased prices of parking meters and the PPA (whom I literally caught stalking my meter later in the day). Already in debt and bereft of money on hand, I came out of the day with a $41 ticket that I had taken every precaution not to get, all of which were defeated by a faulty meter. The aggravation they have caused me in the past is unbelievable. I already have a court date for June to protest an absurd $50 allegation that I was parked in a no-stopping zone. But anyway.
The National Liberty Museum is fairly new, with three stories of exhibits combining both art and information, all dedicated to espousing equality, peace and acceptance. The centerpiece of the meseum is an immense piece of red glasswork by Dale Chihuly entitled “Flame of Liberty” (the top of which can be seen above), which has an accompanying fable created by the museum for children, its main audience. The messages of non-violence and the inalienability of human rights struck a cord. The museum covers the spectrum of oppressions, discrimination, despotism and atrocities through time, along with tributes to 2,000 great heroes (both American and 400 internationals of myriad countries and cultures) and contributors towards peace; the debunking of stereotypes and assumptions; messages of peace and non-violence; and a survey of religious beliefs. Much of it was emotionally affecting. Most of all so was the stairwell, in itself a multi-story memorial to the 3,014 victims of September 11th. This moved me deeply, from the “silent” video of raw, powerful footage of that day, to the photomosaic of servicemen killed in action. Something about the museum really assesses the core aspirations and mission of the United States as a whole – it encapsulates the lofty standards to which democracy ought to be held. It is stark in its recounting of horrors past, reporting of current ones, and those possible in the future, but moreover hopeful and powerful in its message of belief. While I wish it hadn’t cost me $50 (only $5, of course, to the museum), I am glad I went. That being said, I felt nothing short of bullied by the PPA to abandon my plans of going next door to the Museum of Chemical Heritage, and then to the Museum of Contemporary Art. These will have to wait.
From the Notebook:
Parsifal and the Spear of Destiny; Wagner; Vavilov centers; Carol Peace Robins’ “Modern Ark”; Bergman’s Rule; Cope’s Rule; Cesar Chavez; The Four Chaplains; “Benjamin”, last of the thylacines; Gray Panthers; Kissinger; Ralph Bunche; GMO wheat and Norman Borlaug; Linus Pauling; Nobel Prize; “Freedom”, painting by Cao Yong; “Jerusalem”, metalwork by Frank Meisler; Is fully secular statehood good?; American Islamic Congress; $14,434: the average cost of treating a gunshot; Andrei Sakharov and Natan Sharansky; Anwar Sadat; Maximilian Kolbe; “In the last decade, 50,000 children were killed by firearms – the same number of American casualties in the entire Vietnam war.”; Sempo Sugihara; Missionaries of Charity; ongoing famine in North Korea; Robles and De-nuclearized South America; Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (Wizard of the Crow); South American Anti-War Pact.
“God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"Heart of the Andes" by Frederic Edwin Church
