Summary: Immigration has been a charged – and ugly – political issue in the U.S. for all of its history. It seems almost miraculous that this sonnet, and the French statue in New York, exist as components of U.S. culture.<br> Perhaps one day a colossal metal monument of welcome to tired, poor, wretched, yearning masses will be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.<br> This quoted in the Wikipedia article on the statue:<br> “‘Liberty enlightening the world,’ indeed! The expression makes us sick. This government is a howling farce. It can not or rather does not protect its citizens within its own borders. Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the ‘liberty’ of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and industrious colored man to earn a respectable living for himself and family, without being ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the ‘liberty’ of this country ‘enlightening the world,’ or even Patagonia, is ridiculous in the extreme.”<br> –“Postponing Bartholdi’s statue until there is liberty for colored as well,” The Cleveland Gazette, 1886 November 27<br> “The New Colossus”<br> Emma Lazarus<br> Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,<br> With conquering limbs astride from land to land;<br> Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand<br> A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame<br> Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name<br> MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand<br> Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command<br> The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.<br> “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she<br> With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,<br> Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,<br> The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.<br> Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,<br> I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”<br>
