Governors Island, Lifeblood of American Liberty “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots...” Thomas Jefferson, 1787.
Governors Island Legacy

In the way that a house of stone and brick is held together by cement, tolerance is the mortar that holds this world together—that enables cultural diversity and mankind to prosper.

As a reciprocal dynamic, the precept of tolerance requires ongoing struggle grounded in "broad awareness and conscious vigilance" in order to cement what unites us in freedom and to surmount what divides us. When the cement fails, so will the house—as in intolerance (=9/11/2001.)

Please address any communications to President@TolerancePark.org and sign the Petition to the Legislature.

GOVERNORS ISLAND, LIFEBLOOD OF AMERICAN LIBERTY, joins Liberty Island and Ellis Island as National Symbol and omnipresent iconic emblem when restored to its thematic integrity and message of historic meaning.

New York State's birth—a momentous event with a vital message of 21st century relevance—took place on Governors Island in 1624. The island is the place on which the first New World expression of religious tolerance (i.e., toleration) as an individual liberty took place. 

This unique jurisprudential event, the foundation for religious and ethnic diversity in the NY Tri-State region as of 1624, will be the basis for the Island's transformation into an American symbol through a living edutainment park which will function as a Park-to-Tolerance with the Tolerance Monument as centerpiece—a critical facet of American liberty.

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The yacht “Halve Maen” (Half Moon) of the East Indian Company—the first ever European sailing vessel recorded to sail through the Narrows into New York Harbor on precisely September 11, 1609—became the covert forerunner for the overt introduction to North America of a republican, non-royalist, pluralist culture based on toleration, commerce and social mobility.

That culture’s precepts of freedom and liberty, based on the “Right-of-Man” doctrine and the dynamic notion of “Tolerance”, became the foundation of the Original Thirteen and are New York’s cultural heritage to the nation.*

The planting of that legal-political condition took place on Governors Island in 1624—the birthplace of the New York Tri-State region and the origin of American freedom of conscience and [religious] tolerance. That right to toleration was perfected to the uniquely American conception of Religious Freedom as promised in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of 1791 by forbidding the [political] establishment of a religion thus making all religions equal and free under the Constitution.  

The horrific 9/11/2001 assault—an act of global intolerance—was perpetrated in the name of religion. Not acting upon recognized intolerance affirms that laxity, passivity and apathy are its friends.

Tolerance—an active notion—demands. Always a two-way-street, not one-way accommodation, it defines and gives meaning to an otherwise undemanding, generic or static liberty.

Only broad awareness and conscious vigilance of religious, ethnic and racial tolerance as inseparable from liberty will help safeguard and sustain “American” freedom because in an intolerant [disrespecting, discriminatory, prejudiced or bigoted] society freedom-for-all is not possible.

Through the political process and the legislature of New York State and with the support of New York City, we are seeking, as of 1998, broad acknowledgment of Governors Island—New York State's birthplace and most important landmark—as the nation's earliest fundamental intercultural asset so it can serve as a physical reminder to the world that tolerance and liberty are indispensable partners in the notion of American freedom.

For more on the island's national historic significance go to five related pages on www.TolerancePark.org or  CLICK HERE for a deeper understanding of that historic bridge that linked cultures across the Atlantic.  To view the mission statement of the Tolerance Park Foundation CLICK HERE. For contributions CLICK HERE.

Governors Island embodies a message of historic substance to America and carries great symbolic meaning because of the settlers’ first instructions that only “THROUGH ATTITUDE AND BY EXAMPLE” could they attract the natives and non-believers to God’s word “without, on the other hand, to persecute someone by reason of his religion and to leave everyone the freedom of his conscience.”

This virtuous directive of tolerance is New York’s cultural legacy to the nation and still its identity. It demonstrates the efficacy of the extrapolation of the legal-cultural traditions of New York’s birthfather, the Dutch Republic, onto the North-American continent.

Its laws and ordinances had been incorporated in those first instructions. Hence, Governors Island’s echoes the uniquely historic statement of the Republic’s 1579 founding document which stated that “everyone shall remain free in religion and that no one may be persecuted or investigated because of religion.”

It formed the basis of religious and ethnic diversity and characterized New York City’s population since 1624, including non-Christian, non-European diversity. This was best described by English governor Thomas Dongan in 1686: “Here be not many of the Church of England; few Roman Catholics; abundance of Quakers; preachers, men and women especially; singing Quakers; ranting Quakers; Sabatarians; Antisabatarians; some Anabaptists; some Independents; some Jews; in short of all sorts of opinion there are some, and the most of none at all.”

The vibrant notion of tolerance, whether religious, ethnic or racial, is no less important today than it was 350 years ago. Yet, there are few among us who understand that at the foundation of American heterogeneity—indeed, of Western Civilization as it is now conceived—lie the dual concepts of tolerance and liberty as equal partners.

In a culturally intolerant society, constitutional freedom is meaningless unless actively defended: Tolerance is a universal value in the 1948  U.N. human rights declaration and demands reciprocal respect rather than unilateral accommodation. First established virtuously in the Americas on Governors Island in 1624, it provided the basis for New York’s cultural history and still serves as the lifeblood of American liberty.

The precept of tolerance as the basis for successful cultural diversity is known in two versions; the pragmatic or obvious variety which is based on global trade and commerce in its various forms; and, the virtuous, intellectual version which is based on “broad awareness and conscious vigilance” in the definition and defense of personal freedom.

It is the latter, righteous version of America's ultimate virtue that the Tolerance Park and its iconic emblem—the 14-story high tolerance monument of Barnett Newman (dedicated to the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968)—will strive to depict.

In the United States, the only naturally existing historic symbol to represent a fundamental American precept has yet to be politically and popularly recognized: Governors Island in New York Harbor, where the foundation of American pluralism through toleration was planted in 1624. In addition, the island was the birthplace of New York State. These historic events were acknowledged through Senate and Assembly Resolutions No. 5476 and No. 2708 in May 2002.

However, to restore the island to its historical integrity with its distinctive message of national substance, the legislature needs to do more. It also needs to preserve America’s ultimate virtue and sustain it for future generations by dedicating 30% of the island to the proposed Tolerance Park with the envisaged Tolerance Monument as centerpiece. Doing so would compose an island triad in New York Harbor of primary American values: the island symbolds of Tolerance, Liberty and Welcome.

The sum of this iconic "National Heritage Triangle", with each islet (Governors Island, Liberty Island and Ellis Island) exemplifying its own unique facet of history, would be worth more than its collective parts and would promulgate that tolerance and liberty define the juridical and cultural construct to which American freedom refers—that the dynamic precept of tolerance distinguishes the specifically American notion of freedom from the generic or static.

Today, in order "to gain a deeper understanding of U.S. history", applicants for U.S. citizenship are asked a question on their civics test: "Why did the Pilgrims come to America?" The required answer is: "To gain religous freedom." Any earnest historian will view this as either reprehensible bureaucratic ignorance or conscious falsification of U.S. history in order to reinforce a propagandistic myth.

However, when Governors Island's unique, historic message is legislatively restored and preserved for America's future generations, applicants for U.S. citizenship may be asked the question; "Where in America started the concept of religious diversity first as a natural right and enduring cultural tradition?” The answer would be: “On Governors Island.”

It would be the historically correct answer and beyond dispute: It is Governors Island’s national legacy; New York’s identity; and the Lifeblood of American liberty.