Photo/Illutration A demonstrator dressed like the Statue of Liberty holds a placard during a No Kings Day protest against President Donald Trump’s policies, outside City Hall, in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 14. (REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE)

The sky was said to be overcast on June 17, 1885, when a ship arrived in New York Harbor.

On board was the Statue of Liberty—a gift from France, disassembled and packed in 214 crates for shipment across the Atlantic.

The assembled statue holds the Declaration of Independence in its left hand and a torch in its right.

A bronze plaque inside the statue’s pedestal is inscribed with a poem, including these famous lines: “Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

The words reflect the founding spirit of the United States of America—a new world whose doors are wide open and where everyone is given a chance.

Donald Trump’s presidency embodies the ultimate antithesis of that. His administration forcibly seizes immigrants, send troops against protesters and contrives to block foreign students from studying at Harvard University.

I can only say that Trump has trashed America’s founding spirit.

The nationwide “No Kings” anti-Trump rallies held over the weekend were the largest-scale protests since the start of his second presidency.

Internationally, the rallies were also known as “No Dictators” or “No Tyrants” protests.

Who could have imagined such demonstrations being held in the United States, of all places—not in some emerging nation or dictatorship.

America had its declaration of independence, and then the Civil War, before it got to where it is today.

We tend to think that society inevitably changes in the direction of freedom and democracy. But if we don’t speak out, society can fall apart all too readily.

The United States may be at a critical crossroads today.

The Statue of Liberty faces the sea, as if to illuminate the world with its torch. I want to make it turn around and see what is going on behind it.

—The Asahi Shimbun, June 17

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.