In the California high desert that looks surprisingly like New Mexico on Saturday June 24, I discovered Liberty Sculpture Park.
Unfortunately so did at least one other with sinister intentions. Only one day before I found myself heading past this park, an unknown arsonist(s) burned down a statue that had taken seven months to create on a desert park that stands against tyranny.
Other statues are still standing. Chief Crazy Horse, unveiled in 2017 as well as 16-foot statue of Chinese dissident Li Wangyang. Li faced a lengthy 21 year prison sentence and later died mysteriously.
What had piqued our curiosity however stood nearly 20 feet (6.4 meters) tall: a gleaming silver monument comprised of two numerals, a 6 and a 4 just off highway 1-15 North about 102 miles from the Nevada border.
My relative, a good cop who sat beside me wanting to know more, pulled over to investigate. He explained our road trip to Las Vegas could withstand a short delay. Myself not a cop, but equipped with a journalistic mind, later encountered other visitors near the monuments created to stand against tyranny. I met and chatted with a CA couple also visiting. The wife wore a Trump hat; the husband was retired F.B.I.
At Liberty Sculpture Park, there are a handful of large outdoor statues some of which stand up to 20 feet tall and stand for Independence and democracy. No one has tried to pull them down, unlike some southern statues of Civil War confederate leaders. Instead those who disagreed with the message of free speech cowardly lit one on fire.
One of the artists, a sculptor, Weiming Chen, Chinese born who left three decades ago, shared his newest work of art on June 4, 2021: A memorial hall for "Victims of Communism."
His unique "CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Virus Sculpture," was to be a reminder of those killed by the coronavirus. Unfortunately it stood just over a month until it was burned and only charred pieces remained.
Jerry, another artist there, told me the statue took approximately eight months to complete. He assumed this cowardly act of arson was done by someone who supports CCP. Both local law enforcement and the FBI have been contacted and are still looking for the arsonist(s).
On the park's Facebook page is written: "This was an attack on the American system of free speech and was meant to silence us. We will not be silenced, we will rebuild, loudly and proudly. We will be back."
Another life size statue is of a military tank with a lone unidentified Chinese man who we in the West refer to as "Tank Man."
Over 30 years ago, the Beijing demonstrations in which thousands of college students protested for freedom were carried live throughout the free world until the military shut them down and imposed tyrannical demands of journalists. More than one photographer captured the same symbol of peaceful resistance with his photographs. It was Jeff Widener's film, which was smuggled out in a container of tea and would appear on countless newspaper front pages around the world. The photo was taken the day after the military crackdown, when an unknown Chinese man stood up to a league of tanks. This iconic image stands in the hearts and minds of all who fight against tyranny.
According to the Hong Kong Free Press when the "world's largest monument to 1989 Tiananmen Massacre was unveiled' in February 2019 Chen urged: "we don't want to forget the tragedy on June 4 which happened thirty years ago. It is the pain in Chinese people's charge. If we forget it, it may happen again."