In light of the news that France is asking the US to return the statue of liberty

Did you know that when New York City couldn’t afford to install the Statue of Liberty, it was the people immigrants, workers, the rich, the poor who made it possible?

In 1885, faced with a half-finished pedestal and the looming threat that Lady Liberty might never rise, New Yorkers banded together in an extraordinary act of unity 🥹. dockworkers, shopkeepers, schoolchildren gave whatever they could. Some donated pennies, their entire day’s wages. Children gave their lunch money, believing in a future where Liberty would stand tall in their city. Wealthy elites and struggling laborers shared a common cause, proving that this monument belonged not to the powerful, but to the very people she was meant to welcome.

Dollar by dollar, coin by coin, the city refused to let her remain in pieces. And so, through the will of the people, Lady Liberty found her foundation, rising over the harbor not just as a gift from France, but as a testament to the unyielding spirit of New York itself 🗽🤍