This is A Personal Touch, a chance to check in with ordinary people making an extraordinary difference in the world. I’m Rebecca Cressman and today joining us is Daniel Bolz. He is the President and CEO of the Statue of Responsibility Foundation.
Q: Daniel, help us understand just how big this idea is.
A: Well Rebecca, the Statue of Responsibility—first of all, the idea to build a monument was presented by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl from Vienna, a Holocaust survivor. He proposed the idea—oh, it’s been some forty years ago—in his book called Man’s Search for Meaning. That book was an account of how he survived the Holocaust camps. In there he proposed that in order for freedom to endure, generation after generation, that liberties or our rights need to be lived in terms of responsible-ness. And he then proposed that for society to have these two principles—we call them the Twin Pillars of Freedom—to have these two principles constantly in front of us, that being: Liberty, as being represented by the Statue of Liberty, and that the other principle, Responsibility, should likewise be represented by a monument. And he proposed locating it on the West Coast.
Q: It’s interesting too, because Viktor Frankl is recognized as being an incredible philosopher in many ways. Not just a writer, but that as you read his book, you really find out that the power of the human spirit is what helped him survive under the most depraved conditions. How did he continue in that evolution, to start taking on issues like personal responsibility? Or is that connected? We’re all individually responsible for the meaning we derive from our lives or the paths we take.
A: Well Viktor was known, and this came through our interviews when our Foundation, some of our delegation members of the Board visited Vienna in 2004. These comments came from his widow. And his widow Ellie, Eleanor Frankl, and his grandchildren, and basically Viktor, essentially lived every day the message that he proposed in this book, Man’s Search for Meaning; that being that meaning in life can be drawn, and is drawn by how we choose to react to the situations of life as they are dealt to us. That was the philosophy that allowed him to survive the camps as it were. And the whole issue or the core issue of that philosophy is based on taking personal responsibility for any situations that come into our lives, and choosing to act on them as we wish, realizing that there are consequences that will result. But for Viktor, this whole message is and was very powerful and very enlightening and a very positive message. The reason I say that is, quite often in our current vernacular, the word responsibility tends to carry with it kind of a downer connotation. It’s like, “Oh my gosh, something that I’m supposed to be doing, that I’m not doing,” that kind of a feeling. That is not at all in any way, shape, or form the message that Viktor Frankl was sharing. He was sharing a very positive message, and that’s of course what our Foundation is all about, the positive aspect of responsibility—that being that all of us who live in a free society are very much appreciative of the freedoms that we have. And with those freedoms or with those liberties or rights come equally opportunities to act responsibly, however we define that in maintaining those liberties or rights.
Q: You mentioned at the beginning as Viktor Frankl was imagining two pillars, the pillar: the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast, the Statue of Responsibility ideally on the West Coast; both of them representing the importance of having liberty and balance in some sense. And as we talk about Independence Day, and celebrating the freedoms in America, your Foundation, as you look at your website and you learn more about it, talks about how it needs to be in balance, both the principles of liberty, and the principles of responsibility. But there is a difference. And I think this is interesting in that you point out that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from another country, and yet as the Statue of Responsibility is embraced by other individuals, and the money is raised, that will actually be a gift to ourselves.
A: Yes a gift. We call it a gift by Friends of Freedom both here in the United States, and across the world. So it’s almost like… it’s almost as though we have matured in the sense that we appreciate, and we’re living in the lap of luxury as it were, under the umbrella of freedom—lap of luxury meaning the rights and liberties that we enjoy. And now we have matured in the sense that we are realizing that there is something else to be done. That we cannot continue on simply enjoying these liberties as we have, without balancing them equally with responsibilities. So yes, the Statue of Responsibility will be a gift by Americans and Friends of Freedom from around the world.
Q: Well let’s talk a little bit about that gift, because we are a few years into the idea. Well, I guess the idea came from Viktor forty years ago or so. But now you’re into the, “What will this look like?” We know how big the Statue of Liberty is. But we’re talking a physical monument. We’ve already seen the 3D design which you have on your website. You do have a renowned sculptor, Gary Price, who lives in Springville, Utah, who has formulated what he envisions. Describe to us what the Statue of Responsibility will look like and how big it will be.
A: Certainly Rebecca, Gary Lee Price was commissioned in 1997, to begin design work on the monument, and the Foundation formerly accepted his design in 2005; and as you mentioned that design can be found on our website. Speaking over the radio like this to describe it—essentially the design, there were several requirements that the Foundation gave to the sculptor, general guidelines if you will. It needed to be human in representation, and a few other things. But the design essentially is two hands locked, or embraced, just above the wrist, and those two arms and hands are placed in a vertical position. And that’s the design.
Q: And it will be three hundred feet tall, is that correct?
A: Yes, the Statue of Liberty will be the same height as the Statue of Responsibility, three hundred feet above the ground. That’s correct. Now the ratio will be different as we all know. The ratio of Lady Liberty, she is—the actual monument is one hundred and fifty feet tall, and the base is one hundred and fifty. So that ratio will not be what the Statue of Responsibility—the entire monument will go right down to the ground, and actually a floor or two below ground into the visitor’s center.
Q: And this is going to be on the West Coast, and there are some potential sites. Can you kind of—how are you narrowing that down?
A: Well we again, have through a lot of research and a lot of discussion; we identified criteria for the location. It will be on the West Coast, that’s what Viktor Frankl proposed, so that’s a given. And we’ve identified four primary sites. There are some secondary cities that are being considered, but the four primary sites starting from the north will be Puget Sound, which is Seattle area. Further is the next one south, is San Francisco Bay. Coming further south will be the Los Angeles coastal area which is actually Long Beach Harbor, and then the furthest south location is San Diego Bay.
Q: That in itself kind of touches the most southern part of the United States; San Diego, just above the border and all the way up to the Puget Sound. The dream is in motion. I see that even recently school children were raising pennies to represent each—the heights—the potential heights of the Statue. But you are asking, or inviting not just Americans, but the community worldwide to embrace the idea, and to also donate and become Friends of Freedom. And we’ll of course provide links to that on our website, to your Statue of Responsibility website. And there is also the 3D image, where individuals can really capture the vision of that. Before I let you go, I just wanted to touch on this, because Daniel, you made it clear to me that this is not a partisan or political movement. But that this is a movement of community members who want to see the dream of Viktor Frankl come to fruition.
A: Well Rebecca, the cost of freedom and the duty or the task of preserving freedom, once a country has that, knows no political; knows no boundaries at all within society. We refer to it as the umbrella of freedom, or the freedom’s umbrella. All other elements of society, whether it be politics, whether it be religion, whether it be all the other subsets of society, they all derive their strength and ability to do the things that they do when they are living under the umbrella of freedom, yes.
Q: Daniel, thank you so much. Daniel Bolz, the President and CEO of the Statue of Responsibility Foundation. Thank you so much for joining us.
A: It’s been a pleasure Rebecca, thank you.
I’m Rebecca Cressman and I also want to thank you for joining us for this week’s edition of A Personal Touch. Be sure to check your email next Saturday to find out who else like Daniel Bolz, is making a difference in our world with a personal touch.
End of interview.
