The Statue of Liberty went dark and the timing is just too perfect
America always has to do things up big, and it's no different when it comes to metaphors.
On Tuesday evening, people across New York City began tweeting that the normally well-lit Lady Liberty had gone dark.
The theories flew fast on social media, but most suggested the iconic statue went off duty early in sympathy with International Women's Day and the global strikes planned for Wednesday. And why not? She works hard all year long, for no pay.
Even the Women's March organizers tweeted their thanks.
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As it turns out, the blackout (which has now ended) was not at all intentional.
A portion of the lighting system that illuminates the statue experienced a temporary, unplanned outage, a National Park Service spokesperson said.
"The outage was most likely due to work related to an ongoing project to activate a new emergency backup generator that is part of our last remaining Hurricane Sandy recovery projects," he explained. "We will be able to confirm the cause when crews return to the island Wednesday morning."
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It may not have been an activist moment, but the statue went out during the ideal week.
The Donald Trump White House announced its new, not-at-all improved immigration policy on Monday, largely targeted at ending immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.
If the Statue of Liberty, which famously welcomes the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" to America's shores, turned off its lights, it would be a rather perfect protest of the Republican stance on immigration.
Really, there's a smorgasbord of symbology here to choose from, so take your pick.
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Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
