Taking Up the Torch

Michael Levine is upset.

He sees abandonment of personal responsibility as a very real threat to society. And he thinks that now is the time to spark a “prairie fire” of dialogue about the problem.

So Levine has proposed that a Statue of Responsibility, akin to that more well-known statue in New York Harbor, be built on the West Coast to remind people that with liberty comes responsibility.

“Liberty without personal responsibility leads to chaos,” said Levine, a Beverly Hills publicist whose clients have included Michael Jackson, Charlton Heston and Barbra Streisand.

“My belief is that liberty and responsibility are like a seesaw. When you emphasize one to the exclusion of the other, you have an unbalanced seesaw,” he said.

“Many believe that our society has arrived at or near a state of chaos. It is my belief that is because we have placed our emphasis almost entirely on the concept of liberty,” to the exclusion of personal responsibility, Levine said.

Although Garden Grove officials have offered their Orange County city as a potential site, Levine would prefer to place the statue in the Los Angeles Harbor, the “closest thing we have to an Ellis Island.”

When Levine first made his proposal, the Long Island newspaper Newsday, under the headline “Lady Liberty for LaLa” ridiculed the idea.

But Levine is undaunted.

“It’s a cheap shot. It doesn’t speak to the importance or the power of the idea,” Levine said. The Statue of Liberty was called foolish and wasteful when it was proposed, “so I’m not in bad company.”

He has garnered some support. M. Scott Peck, author of the best-selling “The Road Less Traveled,” was one of the first to sign on.

Others include the Rev. Cecil Murray of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Palm Springs), Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs and most recently advice columnist Ann Landers.

Levine said he was impressed by the wide range of viewpoints represented by his supporters, adding that “there’s not much that Bono and Murray” might agree on.

But one official that he has approached has not, to Levine’s dismay, come on board--Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. So far, the mayor’s office has announced no position.

“I’m . . . frustrated and annoyed that our illustrious mayor, who I love and respect, has not seen fit to respond to the idea,” he said.

“[This is] a powerful and good idea whose time has come in a nation that has moved away from its core principle that people should be accountable for what they do,” Levine said.

Levine has his own ideas of what the statue might look like, but he wants to open the discussion to the public.

“It should be decided by some kind of open casting call, to coin a Hollywood expression,” Levine said.

He dismisses the suggestion that Los Angeles, and especially people involved in the entertainment industry, might be unlikely candidates for a personal responsibility statue.

“Hollywood does not have a monopoly on irresponsibility,” he said. “The difference is that the entertainment industry gets more attention than any other industry, with the possible exception of politics or tobacco, maybe.

“It’s true that the entertainment industry has a long way to go,” but others, like the automobile and defense industries, can claim their share of the irresponsibility pie, he said.

Levine estimates that the statue would cost $5 million to $10 million, with funding coming from corporations and private citizens.

“It would be ludicrous to build a Statue of Responsibility and then ask the government to pay for it,” he said.

What good, though, is a mere Statue of Responsibility? How would it make things better?

“It is a powerful symbol for a powerful idea. Symbols can lead to positive dialogue. . . . The idea we need to put forth is an important one; it can [stimulate] serious and hopeful dialogue,” he said.