Oklahoma Man Has Damaged Tree Carved Into Statue Of Liberty
Last winter's ice and snow took its toll on a lot of trees and plants across Texas and Oklahoma. Randy Murphy in Moore, Oklahoma, saw one of his trees severely damaged the storm, but had something better in mind than just having it removed.
You see, Randy is a naturalized citizen of these United States of America and has a special place in his heart for the Statue of Liberty and the poem inscribed at her base. So when his tree succumbed to the storm he enlisted the skills of chainsaw carver Tom Zimmer and had it carved into a replica of the Statue.
In an interview he did with KOCO 5 News in Oklahoma City Randy said that, "After all that we we went through last year, it's still sort of a unifying thing."
We're grateful to Randy Murphy for sharing this with the world and amazed at the artistry of Tom Zimmer.
In case you're wondering what it says at the base of the real Statue of Liberty, it's a 19th century sonnet written by Emma Lazarus called, The New Colossus.
The full text reads like this.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame."Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
The Statue of Liberty was given to the people of the United States from the people of France and was dedicated on October 28th, 1886.