🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C0IKz3.3G9@ddsw1.mcs.com>, arf@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Jack Schmidling) writes:
> 
>  
>                 STATUE OF IMMIGRATION
>  
>  
>  The Statue of Liberty was given to Americans by the French 
>  government in 1886 as a token of friendship between the two 
>  countries.  The statue was to symbolize America's hard won 
>  freedom and liberty.
>  

True, all won by immigrants.

>  However, as a result of a propaganda campaign by immigrant 
>  lobbyists, most Americans have come to think that the statue 
>  represents some sort of inalienable committment to an "open 
>  door", immigration policy.
>  

Except for the American Indian movement - all lobbyists are
immigrant lobbyists.

>  The truth is that in 1926, Emma Lazarus successfully lobbied 
>  to get her now famous lines added to the statue.  The result 
>  is that everytime the idea of limiting immigration is 
>  brought up, these lines are quoted and the subject dropped 
>  as just plain un-American.
>  

and a beautiful poem it is.  She was Jewish you know.

>  Most of us know the first few lines of her poem but when we 
>  hear them all, they take on a rather different complexion, 
>  particularly in light of the present over-populated and 
>  under-skilled society in America today.
>  

You're sure it's not the complexion of the immigrants that
bothers you, rather than the complexion of the poem.

>  "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-tossed to me."
>                 ........................
>  

Wonderful poem.  Symbolizes everything that is great about
America.  I udnerstand you were not born here Jack so maybe
you don't know - but this country was built by that refuse.
They came in speaking a hundred languages and were instantly
hated by the people who had come here before.  They lived
huddled together in crowded slum neighborhoods and were reviled
by the "better classes" of "real Americans". They created the
stores, the highways, the railroads and everything else good
in America.  Their children and grandchildren sat on the Supreme
Court, in Congress and in professorial chairs at the finest
universities.  And those who did not achieve such greatness
spent their lives buying, selling, working and paying 99% of
the taxes that run this place.  My grandparents came here from
Europe and became citizens - becuase you can do that here.  They
could have stayed in the country where they were born and lived
out their lives as 3rd class citizens.  Or they more likely
would have died at the hands of the guys you like so much.  But
here they worked and voted and paid taxes.  My parents worked
hard their entire lives.  My generation in my family was the
first where virtually all of us went to college, and we're
spread across the country, doing our work and paying our taxes.
In short - Jack - we've earned our rights and the immigrants
that came after us are going to do the same.

marc colten