Night without Statue of Liberty

For more than an hour Tuesday night, a cloak of darkness covered Lady Liberty. Some of the lights that normally illuminate the statue went off before 11 p.m., leaving only her still-lit torch and crown visible to most in New York Harbor. As one Twitter post opined, the timing was “just too perfect.” Definitely, tweeted another, “an ominous sign of the times.” The near-blackout of the universal symbol of freedom was invested with great meaning on the internet, with a consensus settling, more or less, on two interpretations.

Lady Liberty was either protesting President Donald Trump generally and more specifically his travel ban just a day after he signed the revised executive order limiting entry to the U.S. from six Muslim-majority countries. Or she was signaling her solidarity with #DayWithoutWoman, a strike, scheduled for Wednesday, that asks women to skip work to show the world what life would be like without them.

“Give me your tired your poor your huddled masses but later. We’re closed,” one tweet said. Her lights were out because “Trump has plunged our country into darkness,” said another. “I’ve been wondering how long before France asks @realDonaldTrump for the statue of liberty back as he clearly doesn’t respect its symbolism,” tweeted Jason Rumble.

Perhaps when her lights came back on, her forearm would display a “Nevertheless, she persisted,” tattoo, another tweet suggested. Could it be that Lady Liberty — one of the nation’s most recognizable female figures — was participating in the “Day Without a Woman?”

Indeed, Women’s March, organizers of the “Day Without a Woman,” were quick to thank the statue for “standing with the resistance and going dark” for the event. “Lady Liberty got the memo,” the organizers added in a tweet. “That’s ONE MORE woman America CANNOT do without,” another Twitter user wrote.

On the other hand, someone else suggested, perhaps Russian hackers were to blame. Women’s March tweeted: Thank you Lady Liberty for standing with the resistance and going dark for #DayWithoutAWoman (startribune.com)