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Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 6:18pmSanction this postReply
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This is a truly wonderful ideal, one that should be embraced by the United States. Unfortunately it is only given lip service as Washington tramples over the natural rights of potential and actual immigrants, barring many of the former and hassling the latter.

With the Patriot Act it has only become worst. Lady Liberty should be shedding tears.


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Monday, February 7, 2005 - 8:52amSanction this postReply
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Yes, the spirit of this inscription is embodied in the attitude of many common American people in how they treat the new immigrants. When I just came to the US years ago I felt keenly the friendliness, helpfulness, and the equality many people had showed me, even though I couldn't comprehend and speak much English at the time. 

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Monday, February 7, 2005 - 9:30amSanction this postReply
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Hong,

I think many people remember that they are descendents of immigrants. My great grandfather came from Sweden with his wife and two boys. Someone was supposed to meet him at the train station in Ogden, Utah. They never showed up. He didn't speak a word of english. They lived in the field next to the train station in a tent and my great grandfather worked as a laborer until he learned enough english to get another job. He eventually bought some land and built a house and started a farm. That house still stands. Whenever I see someone who speaks english with difficulty and obviously has only recently come here, I think of my great grandfather and I think very kindly of them. I am descendant of mostly immigrants, three or four generations past.

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Monday, February 7, 2005 - 4:27pmSanction this postReply
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The inscription perfectly encapulates the ideals america was founded on.

May they make a comeback.


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Monday, February 7, 2005 - 4:31pmSanction this postReply
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The inscription encapsulates the values america was founded on.

May the make a comeback.


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Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 9:02amSanction this postReply
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Trivia: Both Irving Berlin and Gordon Jenkins have set these lines to music, but as is usually the case when the lyrics come first and are not subject to alteration, the tunes are hackneyed.

Lets stick with the poem, which is tremendous:

The New Colossus

(A poem by Emma Lazarus, graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the statue stands)

 

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!”


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Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 1:27amSanction this postReply
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I just came back from a holiday in New York and visited Lady Liberty. I can’t agree more with this quote. In fact if New York were a provincial town, with only the statue of liberty as main site, I would still travel half the world to see it. (Actually it turns out New York is much more :-)).

 

I like Ireland and the Irish, so on previous holidays I have had a chance to look at migration from both sides. The suffering expressed by the monuments and songs in Ireland describing the great famine and waves and waves of emigration that followed, the vibrant city of New York build upon the hopes and dreams of all those who sought a better future far away from home.


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