In New York Harbor stands a giant copper statue, 150 feet tall, and it has been

mounted on a 150 foot base so that the torch of Lady Liberty, as some call her, is

300 feet above ground and above the surrounding harbor. It was a gift from the

French in 1876 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of

Independence. It still had to be put together, assembled, dedicated in 1886, and now

for more than 130 years, the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Freedom has stood

as a symbol in one of the world's most significant cities for freedom, not only

in this nation, but worldwide. But have you ever paused to ask freedom from

what? The idea of Liberty, the idea of freedom, has taken on a life of its own in

the modern world, and it can be very easy to lose track of the context of freedom.

Freedom from what? And freedom for what? The founding fathers of the United States

had a very particular oppressor in mind when they cried for Liberty, English rule.

Interesting enough, that was the same oppressor that William Wallace has in mind in

the 1995 movie when he cries out freedom. That's also English rule. And more

specifically, the U.S. founders cried for freedom, meaning freedom of the

government for the government to be based on the consent of the governed rather

than the authority of kings. That's the original Declaration of Freedom. And yet

in the struggle for independence from Britain, the founding fathers were not afraid to speak

of Liberty in grandiose terms, as in the Declaration of Independence, which let's be honest, was

walked back a little 12 years later in the Constitution. We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain

unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty. What does that mean? In the pursuit of happiness,

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