Seattle's replica of the Statue of Liberty on Alki Beach (below, right) in beautiful and ever-more metro-textural West Seattle has been abused over the years. Additionally, it was not made to withstand moisture very well, and has been slowly disintegrating, as a result.

Now, thanks to the Northwest Program For The Arts, the statue will be replaced with a more durable model. Financial support has been coming through a public-private funding venture that even a Republican could love.

But as The West Seattle Herald reports in its latest issue, Alki denizens are wrestling with which way, exactly, Lady Liberty's backside should face.

Currently, the back of the old sculpture points toward visitors approaching Alki, her front outward on a north-northwest axis.

Granted, that's not where most of our nation's immigrants - legal and illegal - are coming from. Still, the replica's symbolism is hard to dismiss these days, what with illegal immigration into the U.S. reaching a tipping point, and (separately, for the most part) the heightened activities of terrorists who wish to destroy our tall office buildings, cities and civilization.

I think I like the idea of keeping her pointed outward. To me - and maybe this is wishful thinking, but I hope not - it would symbolize hopes for new and better-enforced immigration laws. These laws would welcome some number of legal immigrants each year, but bar entry to those at all believed affiliated with terrorists or terrorist organizations; and also turn back that subset of hard-working, otherwise decent people, who as illegal immigrants are unfortunately resource-sucking lawbreakers. "La Ley Es La Ley," or at least it should be.

Which way do you think Seattle's new Lady Liberty should face, and why?