Finally the sculpture is up and unveiled. The ceremony happened Saturday, May 22nd at 9:00 am. 

The 22nd day of May, 2005 was a very special day. After over 10 years of an
intensive labor of love by founder Robert Miley, in partnership with the board
of directors and many other volunteers and contributors the sculpture is “
releasing the fear” at Sweet Acacia Park located at Central and Roosevelt. The
sculpture is made of weapons that have been confiscated in violent crime by
police departments around the valley, they estimate that over two tons of
weapons were melted down to create the sculpture.
It happened that this particular day was also a record breaking day as far as
temperature goes. There was a heat advisory issued and at 10:00 am we had
already hit over 100 degrees. It was HOT!!!!

Over 200 people gathered and amongst the notable guests there was Governor
Janet Napolitano, Mayor Phil Gordon, Councilman Tom Simplot, Councilman Greg
Stanton, U.S. Marshall David Gonzalez, Former County Attorney Rick Romley,
Chief Deputy of the Maricopa County Attorneys office Sally Wells, Gerald
Richard II from the Phoenix Police Department and the master of ceremonies was
Heidi Fogelsong.

 
We were also blessed with a welcome song from the Foot Clan drummers and in
addition we had Sister Sledge perform “Brother, Brother” with a moving dance
number. Sister Sledge also sang “We are Family” and the excitement in the crowd
started increasing. A masked African dancer from Sankofa dance troupe was on
stilts and roamed the audience and a conga line formed behind a drummer…  and
would walk through the legs og the dancer on stilts. People joined Sister
Sledge on stage and danced and sang along. It was quite a spectacular event.

As the governor started to issue her proclamation the sculpture started to
unveil itself. This was not planned - but so it happened and it was actually
quite a nice coincidence. I heard that the board is planning on sending the
Governor a thank you note for planning it that way.

I had the task of calling the church across the streets to make the bells ring.
At which time a bunch of white doves were released.

So, if you are ever in downtown Phoenix, you should stop by the tiny little
park at the juncture of Central and Roosevelt and take a peek at the sculpture
that had my wife’s attention (and of course mine) for the last few years… It is also a future site
for our light rail stop.