-Because the Facts Have a Liberal Bias! (and I'm too fat to fit on a soapbox).
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Lou Dobbs is Hating on Immigrants Again
It makes me boil. Hasn't he ever seen the Statue of Liberty? You know, the one in the New York Harbor. The one the says "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses."
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colosus", engraved on the statue's pedestal, certainly deserves complete quoting from time to time.
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"
At the time, the sentiment to invite masses to flee despotism and tyranny was necessary (since the U.S. wasn't a world power then)and to some extent utilitarian on our part (to supply cheap labor to the Industrial Revolution).
Now in the 21st century, isn't it just a wee bit presumptuous of us now to say you have to come to the U.S. to avoid despotism and tyranny? Shouldn't basic human rights be available worldwide without populations having to sacrifice their homes to come here?
1 comment:
Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colosus", engraved on the statue's pedestal, certainly deserves complete quoting from time to time.
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"
At the time, the sentiment to invite masses to flee despotism and tyranny was necessary (since the U.S. wasn't a world power then)and to some extent utilitarian on our part (to supply cheap labor to the Industrial Revolution).
Now in the 21st century, isn't it just a wee bit presumptuous of us now to say you have to come to the U.S. to avoid despotism and tyranny? Shouldn't basic human rights be available worldwide without populations having to sacrifice their homes to come here?
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