The Myth of America

On my wall hangs a woodblock print of part of “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus’s famous poem about the Statue of Liberty.

            Give me your tired, your poor,

            Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

My daughter likes to be lifted up to look at the print. She likes the three red stars that sit in a row near the bottom.

Beneath those red stars is written one final line: “Welcome to the United States of America.”

When I read those lines to my daughter, the words increasingly feel hollow. After all, who is welcome in the US right now? Certainly not the poor or those yearning for freedom.

Other lines of Lazarus’s poem describe “the Mother of Exiles” asking other countries to send her their homeless, while her torch burns in “world-wide welcome.” Exiles and the homeless are also not welcome here anymore. At least, not according to the powers that allow such individuals to come and stay.

The Statue of Liberty is an entrenched icon, an America’s symbol. Part of the grand myth we have been telling ourselves as a nation. But right now, Lady Liberty stands rather unsteadily on her pedestal.

You can’t say you are for America and throw the homeless back out into the world.

You can’t say you are for America and deny First Amendment freedoms.

You can’t say you are for America and shutter aid for the poor.

You can’t say you are for America and turn away exiles.

These things make you shortsighted and small. America has more to give than this.  

The Statue was created as a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States to commemorate both the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the recent abolition of slavery. We’ve had almost a century and a half to live up to the ideals she embodies. We the people can’t fail now.