In August 21, 1945, my father, along with almost 15,000 other soldiers, was on the Queen Mary, which was one of the first ships to bring soldiers back from Europe at the end of World War II. As the ship approached New York Harbor, the soldiers saw a familiar and welcome sight—the Statue of Liberty. At that moment, my father liked to recall, one of the returning solders said something like, “Put down the torch, honey. I’m home.”

My father also said that so many soldiers wanted to see the statue that the Queen Mary began to list badly to one side. Concerned that the boat might not be stable, the officers ordered the men back to their bunks.

My mother (who had married my father in August 1944 just before he found out he was being shipped overseas) was supposed to be on one of the fireboats that greeted the Queen Mary as it entered the harbor and sailed up the Hudson River. (She had snared that prime spot thanks to a neighbor who was a firefighter, and was the father of Lew Harris, a longtime family friend who joined the fire department after the war and rose to become its chief of operations.). However, she didn’t go (I think because she had an upset stomach and didn’t relish the thought of being on a small boat). Instead, she found a place to watch as the ship docked on the West Side of Manhattan, near 50th Street, where, she claimed, she was able to spot my father among the thousands of soldiers. A little later, my father was discharged and moved in with my mother and her family, who were living on Montgomery Avenue in the Bronx.

This homecoming story come to mind because of its connection to the Statue of Liberty, which was completed and dedicated on October 28, 1886. To mark that anniversary, today’s #stampoftheday is a 15-cent stamp, issued in November 1922 that was the first of many stamps that portrayed the Statue of Liberty. I’ve written about two of those stamps – a 1940 stamp that was one of three “National Defense” stamps issued as part of FDR’s efforts to prepare the country for war and a 1954 stamp that was part of the “Liberty Series,” which honored famous locations and notable “guardians of freedom,” including (quite bizarrely) General Robert E. Lee.

So on the one hand, I’ve already said a lot about the Statue of Liberty in these posts. But on the other hand, I can’t say enough, because the Statue of Liberty is an iconic and timeless symbol of America’s better self, the part of this country that respects human rights, welcomes immigrants, and celebrates liberty and freedom.

It’s especially important to write about the statue now because our country’s commitment to the values it represents has been under attack and, arguably, is at stake in the voting for President and Congress that will end next week. Nothing illustrates this more starkly than last week’s revelation that the US government can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children who were separated from those parents in accordance with a draconian policy developed and approved at the highest levels of the Trump administration.

While this tragedy is especially heartbreaking, it’s only one of a long list of current policies and practices that are at odds with the core values associated with the Statue of Liberty since its dedication. Speaking at the statue’s dedication ceremony, just after the last piece had been riveted into place, President Grover Cleveland touted those values.

“We are not here today to bow before the representation of a fierce warlike god, filled with wrath and vengeance,” he said, in the wonderfully florid language of late 19th century political speeches. Rather, he said, “we joyously contemplate…our own deity keeping watch and ward before the open gates of America….Instead of grasping in her hand thunderbolts of terror and of death, she holds aloft the light which illumines the way to man’s enfranchisement.” The statue, he added, would send forth “a stream of light” that would “pierce the darkness of ignorance and man’s oppression, until Liberty enlightens the world.”

Reading those words reminded me that a few years ago, I saw the Statue of Liberty from a boat near the Red Hook in Brooklyn. The view, which was a new one for me, struck me as close to what my father must have seen when he sailed into New York Harbor in August 1945 and what my great-grandparents might have seen before they entered the US at Ellis Island in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In that moment, I had a glimpse of what the statue must have meant to them, a reminder of what it has stood for, and a suggestion of what it can still be in the future.

The statue was—and can again be—a stream of light that can pierce the darkness and, in doing so show a path to liberty. That’s what’s at stake in this election.

Be well, stay safe, vote (if you haven’t already), fight for justice, and work for peace, liberty and freedom.