A large 'Democracy' ice sculpture placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday gave a chilling warning.
It weighs about 3,000 pounds and is "in direct view of the U.S. Capitol as a vanishing reminder, its creators said, of rapidly eroding rights and an existential threat to the freedom on which America was founded," The Washington Post reports.
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, told The Post that democracy is in jeopardy under the Trump administration. The activist's Up in Arms campaign, which calls for reduced military and Pentagon spending and more healthcare and education spending, said the organization is behind the 5-foot-high and 17-foot-wide sculpture.
“Showing in real life that democracy is melting away before our very eyes, I think it’s a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings and the sadness and the horror of Americans,” Cohen told The Post.
“Attacks on freedom of speech. Masked, unidentified secret police snatching people off the streets and arresting and deporting them. These are horrible things that we used to talk about as happening in other countries,” Cohen said. “People being prosecuted and punished and sentenced without due process. Using the military against the population of the United States is undemocratic, right?”
Artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese created the piece and have made other similar works to call attention to important social causes, including “Truth” at the same location in D.C. in 2018 and “The Future” at the People’s Climate March in New York City in 2014.
“We do this work to spark thought and provoke awareness and encourage people to engage in discussion about the issues and hopefully take some action,” Ligorano told The Post. “To witness it melting in front of the nation’s Capitol just adds theatrically, it sets the stage for what’s really going on.”