The symbolic worth of this island triad is greater than the sum of its parts. Each islet exemplifies its own unique facet of history but together they define the juridical and cultural construct to which American freedom refers.

Consequently, this pictogram composes America’s fundamental conceptions — Tolerance, Liberty and Welcome — in a National Heritage Triangle of primary symbols as portrayed by Governors Island, Liberty Island and Ellis Island. As the nation's elemental ideals, they constitute collectively the notion of American freedom.

On May 30, 2002, the New York State legislature officially recognized Governors Island as the state's birthplace in the year 1624. The legal-cultural code of religious tolerance (“toleration”) as the basis for ethnic diversity was delivered to Governors Island in that 1624 year by the first settlers. The planting of this historic precept in the conception of American freedom occurred with the founding of the juridical entity of New Netherland that year (which later transformed into the sovereignty of New York State) as a North American extension of the Dutch Republic. Hence, New York's first laws and ordinances also comprised individual liberties like freedom of conscience and religious tolerance - thus first introduced into the New World.  Therefore, the Island is the locus of a momentous message that lies at the root of New York’s traditions as well as American pluralism and liberty.

The Tolerance Park Foundation’s KEY MISSION is to preserve Governors Island as the nation's oldest natural symbol – NY State's birthplace and the place on which the judicial principles of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Tolerance were placed first in the New World in 1624. Political recognition of this historic 1624 event would help illustrate the universal value of Tolerance as vital to American Liberty – that the fraternal twins Tolerance and Liberty lie jointly at the conception of American Freedom. Academic and political acknowledgment of the Island's historical significance and historic symbolism would thus reveal the momentous message of Tolerance as a core virtue and central to the conception of American Freedom – that the precept of Tolerance is indispensable in the appreciation of America’s ethos of individual freedom (i.e., liberty.)

As of 1998, the Foundation has sought POLITICAL (1) recognition of Governors Island in New York Harbor as the New World’s first location on which the jurisprudence of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Tolerance (Toleration) as individual liberties was placed in the year 1624; (2) understanding that, as the basis of religious and ethnic diversity, Toleration was re-codified and optimized to the uniquely American concept of freedom-of-religion that promised all religions to be “equal and free” in 1791. This Constitutional promise became effective for all citizens through the Bill of Rights’ 14th Amendment in 1868; (3) acknowledgment of the notion that Tolerance and Liberty are inseparable in the conception of American Freedom — that religious, ethnic and racial liberty is of no consequence in an intolerant culture; hence that Liberty sprouts from the reciprocal dynamic of Tolerance and is its thematic complement; (4) appreciation of Governors Island’s historical significance as the best planned, most successful landing of the three principal seventeenth-century European landings on North America’s East Coast; (5) acceptance that Governors Island carries a message of historical substance and 21st-century relevance as recognized by the NY State Legislature in Legislative Resolutions of May 2002 by affirming the Island as the juridical origin of American Tolerance and declaring it the State’s birthplace in 1624; (6) endorsement of Governors Island’s national symbolism and support for the visualization of its historic message vital to moral progress which would reveal the Island’s iconic worth to humanity.

Political acceptance of this harbor tableau of symbols would restore, protect and preserve Governors Island’s vital message of tolerance as America's ultimate virtue for the benefit of future generations. Additionally, the exceptional universal value of the island’s cultural and national heritage could qualify it potentially as a World Heritage Site.

New York State’s cultural patrimony of diversity through its historic jurisprudence of toleration — its identity and legacy to the nation — was vital in the development of American freedom as we know it today. As a moral dynamic, tolerance is its lifeblood. As defender and definer of liberty, the ethical force of tolerance, when visualized, extols America’s ultimate virtue and sustains it for the future in an ever-changing society.

Governors Island's transformation into America's virtuous symbol of tolerance is to be accomplished through the creation of a 50-acre living museum-park (30% of the island) — to be known as the Tolerance Park — with, at its center, a 151 ft (46 m) high Tolerance Monument as the universal embodiment of the dynamic force of tolerance in American freedom.

 

Similarly, Bedloe Island — where one could reside free from prosecution in the New York Tri-State region of the 17th-century — was transformed into the American symbol of Freedom by the French gift of the Statue of Liberty while Ellis Island was transformed into the symbol of Welcome through the creation of the American Immigration Museum.

 

Freedom has no meaning in an intolerant (disrespecting, discriminatory) society as demonstrated by the horrific 9/11/2001 assault which was perpetrated in the name of religion. This shameless act of global intolerance was an attempt to set up the Judeo-Christian culture against the Islamic culture on a worldwide scale. Not acting upon recognized intolerance affirms that indifference, complacency, laxity and apathy are the friends of iniquitous bigotry (as, for instance, in Europe in the 1930's and in America from 1941-46).

 

As a two-way street, tolerance makes specific demands. It entails reciprocity and reciprocal respect rather than unilateral accommodation and in defining American freedom, it is a prerequisite for sustainable liberty. Indeed, the limits of tolerance set the standards of liberty and societal freedom itself.

 

Governors Island, when so acknowledged by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (following thirteen years of silence from the Governors Paterson, Spitzer and Pataki) and the State Legislature, will instill confidence in the dependable and binding power of tolerance and conciliation as indispensable to the concept of American freedom. Hence, the Legislative Resolutions of May 2002 alone will not suffice in realizing this National Symbol and future World Heritage Site through the living museum park-to-tolerance. Only unanimous acceptance of a two-house bill in Albany will accomplish that.

 

The three historic islands are geographically perfectly aligned in a triangle and thus compose and portray a new and omnipresent American icon: The National Heritage Triangle. Please address any communications to President@TolerancePark.org.

 

 

Mailing address: The Tolerance Park Foundation, 139 East 79th Street, 15th floor, New York, NY 10075, U.S.A..