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SCULPTURE OF THE MONTH #4
Artist: Albino Manca
Architects: Gehron and Seltzer
Dedicated
1963
Location, size, medium
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Batttery Park at the water, near where the ferry
for the Statue of Liberty departs. Bronze eagle on a pedestal, 18.5 feet
high. Eight granite slabs, each 19 feet high.
About the statue and the subject
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The East Coast Memorial is dedicated to the
4,596 World War II servicemen lost in the Atlantic; a similar monument to
those lost in the Pacific stands in San Francisco’s Presidio. Its
centerpiece is a stylized eagle with a ferocious gaze swooping down to lay
a wreath on the waves. The names of those lost are inscribed on eight
enormous slabs placed between the eagle and the Harbor. Looking between
the tablets, you can see (appropriately) the Statue of Liberty.
I like the fierceness of this memorial, which
conveys not just grief over the lives lost but the idea that they were
lost in a worthwhile cause, and that those who survived should rightly be
proud to have fought and won. As Americans fight in Iraq, it is good to
have a reaffirmation of this.
The Price
by Berton Braley
Whatever of freedom we own
Somebody has striven and tried for it;
By war through the years it has grown
By strength of the men who have died for it;
Each stone in the structure of truth--
Some one has made ready and right for it.
Some one has spent heart's blood and youth,
Some one has been willing to fight for it.
Not always has blood been the pay
But always a price has been paid for it;
The worth of achievement to-day
Is gauged by the struggle we've made for it.
There need not be rancor or hate
Nor bitterness, terror and blight for it,
But nothing is worthy or great
Unless you are willing to fight for it.
You cannot buy progress with gold
(you get but the emptiest shell of it);
But to win it and earn it and hold
You must go through the heat and the hell of it,
You must suffer the sweat and the pain,
You must toil and the day and the night for it,
For nothing worth while you can gain
Unless you are willing to fight for it.
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For good measure, here’s some additional
inspiration: a speech you probably read in high school, and haven’t
thought of since.
They tell us, Sir, that we are weak, - unable
to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger?
Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are
totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every
house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we
acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our
backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall
have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper
use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
Three millions of People, armed in the holy cause
of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are
invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside,
Sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who
presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to
fight our battles for us. The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone;
it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no
election. If we were base enough to desire, it, it is now too late to
retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and
slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the
plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir,
let it come!
It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter.
Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! – but there is no peace. The war is
actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to
our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the
field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that Gentlemen wish? What
would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not
what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me
death! -- Patrick Henry, March 1775
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