Hostage of the Harbor

The Statue of Liberty is being held hostage by National Park Service Director Mary Bomar and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and we find this outrageous!
The National Park Service oversees such sites as the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. They are open. Lady Liberty is the only national park still closed nearly six years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
The &#8220Do Not Enter” signs at our nation's symbol of freedom must be removed now that the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed legislation - authored by Queens Congressmember Anthony Weiner - to reopen the park and the entire statue.
Bomar and Kempthorne maintain that the Statue is open.
Yes you can sail to Liberty Island once you submit to a thorough search of your belongings - pocketbooks, backpacks, briefcases, camera bags and shopping bags - pass through super sensitive metal detectors which even require men to remove their belts along with the usual metal objects like keys, rings, pagers, cellphones and metal necklaces or pendants for scanning.
However, once you arrive at the Island all you can do is buy the really awful concessionaire food, attempt to drink the rotgut coffee, walk around the base of the Statue and take pictures at very weird angles.
Yes - the Statue's base, pedestal and observation deck were reopened in August 2004. However, at the stone pedestal, there are long lines to enter the museum. Once inside, you are barred from entering the 151-foot-tall Statue's interior containing the original Torch or ascending the circular, single-file, 154-step staircase that leads up to the windows in the Crown that used to accommodate 30 people at a time.
So much for its being open - sure sounds closed to us.
The Interior Department's refusal to reopen Lady Liberty fully has had a profound impact on our city's economy too. Since the Crown has been closed there has been a 40 percent drop in visitors that translates to the loss of over two-and-a-quarter million tourists and millions of dollars they would have spent in the Big Apple.
We have to wonder why the National Park Service has bothered to switch ferry services from the Circle Line to Hornblower Yachts, Inc. Hornblower's claim to fame is that they run the ferries to Alcatraz in San Francisco.
Perhaps the Park Service is not getting enough revenues from their &#8220open” Statue of Liberty. The House of Representatives has even earmarked $1 million to aid in the reopening.
We say to the Department of Interior and the National Park Service - stop hiding behind the Statue's flowing gown and release the &#8220Hostage of the Harbor.”
Americans must have full access to our symbol of freedom and liberty - our Statue of Liberty.