South Tower, 105^th Floor, September 11, 2001.  A day of infamy.

James Marcel Cartier was a happy go lucky Local Union 3 electrician assigned to a job at the World Trade Center only two weeks prior to the attack.  A hard worker, he never took the easy route.  He was happy on returning home dirty, which meant that he worked hard.  Prior to becoming an electrician, he work numerous local jobs, among them a stationery store, a pizzeria, a drug store, and he was found many times behind the counter of a local deli.

He lived in Astoria, Queens and was well known and liked in the neighborhood.  One of seven children, his happy disposition, his love of family and friends, was well known.  He graduated from Msgr. McClancy High School in 1994.  He was liked dearly among his fellow student and teachers.

The day of the attack, and true to his way of putting his family and loved ones before himself, he called his brother John; a call that saved his sister’s life.  His last words were relayed to his parents via voicemail.  He said “I love you”.

John’s name is inscribed among the many in the World Trade Center Memorial.  Several paintings were created by local artists to commemorate his life.  His older brother John took a different path to keep James’ memory alive.  Both avid motorcyclists, John founded and continues to preside over the American Brotherhood motorcycle club.  Their colors bear the twin towers with James Cartier’s initials displayed on the South Tower.

Hamilton was born in the British West Indies, and moved to New York in 1772 to attend King’s College, known now as Columbia University. As a teenager, he volunteered for service in the Revolutionary War in a New York artillery company.  There he rose to the rank of captain.  Hamilton later served as a confidential assistant to General George Washington as a Lieutenant Colonel.

In 1780, he married Elizabeth Schuyler.  In 1782 he was admitted to the bar and began to practice law in New York. He was also a delegate in the Continental Congress and played an important role in the ratification of the United States Constitution in New York. He co-authored many of the Federalist Papers and, he was appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury by President Washington. While holding this position, Hamilton’s concentration on business aided the growth and development of New York City as a financial center.

In 1800, he started construction of his country home in the neighborhood that later became known as Hamilton Heights. Hamilton died in 1804 when he was fatally wounded in a duel with political rival Aaron Burr.  He is buried in Lower Manhattan’s Trinity Church cemetery.

The statue located on East Drive, opposite of East 83^rd Street, depicts Alexander Hamilton as a distinguished political figure of an emergent United States.  Hamilton’s son, John C. Hamilton, donated the piece to New York City in 1880.  The monument is unusual in that it is carved entirely of granite.  The thirteen stars above the monument’s pedestal represent the thirteen original colonies, and convey Hamilton’s patriotism and service.

Henry Ward Beecher was born on June 24, 1813, in Litchfield, Connecticut.  The eighth son of a prominent minister Lyman Beecher, Henry became a celebrated preacher who emphasized God’s love rather than God’s punishment.  He died on March 8, 1887, in Brooklyn, New York.  Like his father and brothers, he attended Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father was president.  Beecher’s first parishes were in Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis, both in Indiana. During his tenure, he became a captivating speaker and antislavery activist.

In 1847, Beecher became minister of the newly founded Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York.  He was describes as possessing an “odd combination of western informality, eastern education, and unabashed showmanship.”  These qualities helped lead to his fame and influence.

As tensions increased between North and South in the years leading up to the Civil War, he spoke out against slavery, using his role as minister to spread his views.  He staged slave auctions at his church to convince his congregants to donate enough money to buy freedom for enslaved people being sold. In the 1850s, Beecher corralled resources and weapons for the abolitionist settlers engaged in combat to keep the affiliated territories free of slavery.  The guns became known as “Beecher’s Bibles,” because they were shipped in boxes labeled “Bibles.”  In 1863, Beecher traveled to England to present five speeches about slavery and its abolition.  President Abraham Lincoln was so certain that Beecher’s speeches had influenced the outcome of the war that he sent him to Fort Sumter, where the Civil War began, to raise the United States flag after the South surrendered.

Over the years, Beecher supported other reform movements. He aided women’s suffrage and spoke out against the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Born on May 2, 1871in Cobourg, Canada, Duffy relocated to New York in 1893 to teach French at what is now known as Xavier High School.  In 1896 he was ordained as a priest and accepted a faculty position at St. Joseph’s Seminary located in Dunwoodie, NY.  He remained there for the next fourteen years.

Father Duffy began his military service with the Fighting 69^th Infantry during the Spanish-American War of 1898 where he served as First Lieutenant and chaplain.  World War I found him earning a number of medals while serving in Europe with the famed Rainbow Division.  He is the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the U.S. Army; among which awards are the Distinguished Service Cross, Conspicuous Service Cross, and the Distinguished Service Medal.

Post war, Father Duffy returned to New York where he served as a pastor at the Holy Cross Church until his death on June 27, 1932 at the age of 61 years.  In 1927 he ghost-wrote a thoughtful article dispelling anti-Catholic notions of religious freedom and freedom of conscience with respect to political norms at the time.

A 1940 film called The Fighting 69^th depicted Father Duffy’s life and his military exploits.  His persona was portrayed by famed actor Pat O’Brien, co-starring James Cagney.

Today, we pay homage to this extraordinary man via a stoic statue in the northern triangle of Times Square.  Known locally as Duffy Square, it is home to the bronze portrait of the military priest depicted as a uniformed soldier, standing tall in front of a granite Celtic Cross, with a helmet at his feet and a bible in his hands.

Frankly, I found this tribute a bit burlesque.  Father Duffy served honorably when called to arms during times of war, and further, the Times Square district for a number of years as a priest.  That said, placing an icon depicting a humble and discreet man in the middle of such a heavy tourist area appears more commercialized and less effigial in nature.  Additionally, since the statue portrays him as a soldier, we should note that Father Duffy’s namesake is already commemorated at Camp Smith’s Spiritual Fitness Center; a New York Army National Guard installation located in Cortland, New York – a more appropriate tribute.

Robert Francis Kennedy was born in 1925.  He was the third son of Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of the very powerful Kennedy family. His older brother, John Fitzgerald Kennedy served as the 35^th  President of the United States.  Robert “Bobby”  Kennedy served in his brother’s administration as the United States Attorney General. After John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Robert resigned from office and moved into an apartment at the United Nations Plaza in Manhattan.  Although he was accused of being a “carpetbagger,” Kennedy mounted a successful campaign for the United States Senate in 1964.  After speaking out against the escalating war in Vietnam, he ran for president in 1968.  He was assassinated on June 6, 1968 while campaigning in Los Angeles. This sculpture was relocated and placed in a picturesque surrounding as a result of renovations to Columbus Park, completed in 1994.

This bronze bust, located near the footsteps of the Supreme Court of King’s County in Brooklyn’s Columbus Park, represents Attorney General, United States Senator, and Presidential candidate Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968). The piece was sculpted by artist Anneta Duveen and dedicated in 1972. It features a polished granite pedestal with four quotes from Kennedy inscribed on the base as a means to inspire community action, whether it be at the local, national, or global level.

The quotes are:

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”

“What we require is not the self-indulgence of resignation from the world but the hard effort to work out new ways of fulfilling our personal concern and our personal responsibility.”

“We must get our own house in order.  We must because it is right.  We must because it is might.”

“All great questions be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people – speaking out – in prose, or painting, or poetry, or music; speaking out – in homes and halls, streets and farms, courts and cafes – let that  voice speak and the stillness you hear will be the gratitude of mankind.”

While we went to a trip to the Metropolitan museum of art this May 6, 2017, This one is one of the statue that I found interesting too, it’s the Kongo Power that , this statue were the creations of sculptors who contributed the figurative receptacle and ritual specialist responsible for its consecration with customized sacra. This work is among the most monumental examples thats served to invoke the preeminent force of jurisprudence, known as Mangaaka. Mangaaka was designed to inspire awe and respect for local authority and rule of law.

The figure’s posture and gesture, leaning forward with hands placed akimbo its hips. was seen as the assertive attitude of one who challenges fearlessly, It’s crowing element is the distinctive mpu headdress worm by chiefs or priests. The power pack in the stomach was deliberately emptied by its original owners in order to disempower or desacralize the work before it left the community. When in use, this figure featured a beard composed of plant matter affixed with metal around the perimeter of the chin and  a raffia skirt that extended to the feet.  The accumulation of metal addictions to the surfaces reflects this work’s use during myriad consultations.

   While we went to a trip to the Metropolitan museum of art this May 6, 2017, some of the statue that I found interesting was the first statue when we entry to the museum. This status is the Marble statue of Athena Parthenos, Greek Hellenistic period, c,a 170 after the mid 5th century , chryselephantine cult statue of Athena Parthenos by Pheidias in Athens. The cult statue of Athena in the Parthenonn at Athens was still standing while the Hellenistic kingdom of Pergamon was flourishing. Moreover, the ties between the two centers were extensive.

The Athena here, presented as the goddess of knowledge and the arts, dominated Pergamons famous library. The image is smaller and shows modifications that because of its fragments condition, can only partly be identified as deliberate. The Pergamene statue lacks the sphinx, winged horses and other attributes of the original Athena’s helmet, as well as the protective snake curled within her shield. The back of the Pergamene statue is cursorily carved and only one block of its base survives. It preserves part of the relief that decorated the base of Pheidias’s statue and illustrated the birth of Pandora, the creation myth of the first woman on earth, all endowed by the gods as her name suggests. The Attalid kings admired Classical painting and sculpture, and this impressive Athena is the best-known example of Pergamene Classicism.

To the Defenders of the Union 1861-1865 “The Soldiers’ and Sailor’ Memorial Arch” located at Grand Army Plaza. Designed by John H. Duncan and completed in 1892, becoming Brooklyn’s best Known Civil War icon. These sculptures were all completed over a period from 1898-1901. On January 1, 1863 proclamation that freed slaves in southern territories was controlled by the Union Army by which this executive proclamation by President Lincoln also committed the Union to the abolition of slavery. On August 6, 1889,  William R. Ware and  Charles B. Atwood  who had been appointed by the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument Commission, selected  John H. Duncan’s design for the arch from 36 designs submitted the previous year.

This sculpture depicts the winged goddess of victory, following victorious combat (The Civil War) with instruments of war: sword, colors, flagstaff, and  quadriga  (the Union Army). Winged attendants are seen removing two of the four quadriga horses for peacetime use (postbellum recovery) while trumpeting the victory and freedom  (Emancipation). The arch was designated a landmark in 1973, and the crowning sculpture was restored after the chariot’s figure fell out in 1976.

Robert Francis “Bobby” Kennedy, commonly known by his initials RFK, was an American politician from Massachusetts. He served as the United States junior senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968.  He was born November 20, 1925 in Brookline Massachusetts. In front of New York Court State Supreme Court building at Montague and Courts Street there is a monument in the honor of RFK. This sculptor was dedicated on November 2, 1972. He was a committed advocate of the poor and racial minorities and opposed escalation of the Vietnam War. After Kennedy was appointed attorney general he fought organized crime and worked for civil rights for African Americans and the minority community.

Robert wrote five books and many other publications on politics and various issues that were confronting his nation and his generation. He also founded the Bedford-Stuyvesant Corporation to rebuild one of New York City’s worst ghettos. His final achievements during his life was the winning  of five presidential primaries all of which were southern states whose opinions of RFK were famously hateful. In 1978 he received posthumously the Gold Medal of Honor. After his death multiple organisations  were formed and roads, public schools and other facilities across the U.S. were named in his memory.