The Illuminated Donkey

Did you know that Ellis Island is officially part of New Jersey? More specifically, did you know that it's officially part of my new home, Jersey City? Al Rinn does, and he wants to do something about it.

SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR by Sally Deering, Jersey Journal staff writer

Every time Jersey City resident Al Rinn, 84, steps foot in Liberty State Park, he says he thinks of his mother, who left Genoa, Italy in the early 1900s and was processed through Ellis Island before settling with her family on Sullivan Street in New York. "She was a wonderful woman, intelligent and stout-hearted. She had a hard life," Rinn says of his mother, who after meeting Rinn's father moved to Jersey City and raised five children.

But Rinn's weekly trips to Liberty State Park are motivated by more than just thoughts of family: They are fueled by his passion to see the bridge that connects the park to Ellis Island open to pedestrians.

As a resident of Liberty Avenue in Jersey City (admittedly, nowhere near where the bridge would be) I think this would be pretty damn cool.