c. 2005 Newhouse News Service

(UNDATED) In our home, the Statue of Liberty resides in a place of honor, under a bright lamp on the table next to my favorite chair.

Molded in papier-mache by my daughter’s 10-year-old hands, Lady Liberty’s color is not the usual patina, but rather a blend of muted greens that merge into a kind of camouflage. Twirled pieces of orange and hot pink crepe flame from the torch that is propped into the crook of her right arm.

This Statue of Liberty does not stand with her head held high against the injustice of tyranny. Instead, she is propped up like an exhausted mother against the corner of the small glass display case meant to protect her from dust mites and Reggie the Cat. There she sits, her legs straight out in front of her, the prongs of her crown bent, her eyes two black dots of astonishment.

“She’s tired,” my daughter said when she first placed the statue in my hands nearly a decade ago. “It’s a lot of work being her.”

By fifth grade, my daughter already understood that being an American takes work. There are a lot of civil liberties to protect, and sometimes knees buckle under the weight of it all.

Last week, I found myself staring at our weary Lady Liberty as I absorbed the latest in the controversy swirling around the American Girl dolls. As I wrote recently, extremists accuse American Girl of promoting abortion and lesbianism by selling “I Can” bracelets symbolizing girls’ empowerment. They cost a dollar each, with proceeds going to Girls Inc. programs designed to build science, math and technology skills of mostly disadvantaged girls.

If you’re missing the controversy so far, it’s because there shouldn’t be any. Click on the Girls Inc. Web site and you’ll find all kinds of rah-rah sections meant to boost girls’ self-esteem and their will to make a difference in the world. Surf for a while and you’ll finally find references to laws that protect a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. You’ll even discover a section that says lesbians are people, too, and not necessarily on a one-way march into the fires of hell.

This is why the Pro-life Action League is planning to make good on its threat to picket American Girl Place in Chicago. Newsweek reported last week that the group has picked the day after Thanksgiving, when countless young girls are expected to show up with parents and grandparents as part of the inevitable swell of Americans on the biggest shopping day of the year. Newsweek also reported that some of the protesters vow to bring along their graphic blood-and-toes posters depicting rare, late-term abortions.

This group, led by Ann Scheidler, is extremist even for many who oppose most abortions. When I interviewed her last month, she insisted that no exceptions exist for a woman who wanted to end a pregnancy.

“What if she’s raped, or a victim of incest?” I asked.

“Absolutely not,” she said.

“What if the mother has been told she will die?”

“No,” she said. “No exceptions.”

Most Americans support abortion rights under some circumstances. Of those who don’t, it’s a small percentage who agree with Scheidler that even a victim of violence or a mother whose life is in peril should be forced to carry to term. But Scheidler and fellow protesters don’t care about that, or the young girls they will terrorize outside the doors of American Girl.

These are our children’s champions? Scheidler’s hysterics remind me of another group’s protest last year against the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants, a sponge they declared gayer than Elton John and toxic to toddlers’ minds.

In both instances, it’s the protesters, not the products, that force young minds to wrestle with adult issues before they, or their parents, are ready. Parents lose control over the when-and-where of their parenting whenever these so-called defenders of children decide some children are worth sacrificing.

The tired Lady Liberty in our home reminds me that freedom is a full-time job with no retirement. I took another long look at her on Friday and decided to order a dozen “I Can” bracelets.

You can, too, and I hope you will. Go to http://www.americangirl.com/ican, or call 1-800-845-0005.

(Connie Schultz is a columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)

KRE/JL END SCHULTZ

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