Click to enlarge,
hope, dream
The New ColossusNot 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!”
Source: Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings (2002)
5 comments:
And a reminder...
"Ozymandias"
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
salam & yo abbas
I love that poem. Hey, I remembered right, it's Shelley! (And the wiki says Ozymandias was the Greek name for Pharaoh Ramesses II.)
But I'm pretty sure Lazarus was referring to one of the Seven Ancient Wonders, the Colossus at Rhodes, whose massive bronze legs strode the entrance to the harbor. An earthquake toppled it, and the story I heard was that, when last seen, its scrap bronze rubble was camel caravaned to Syria.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
(Or as we used to giggle in Latin class: Gloria was sick Monday and got run over by a city bus.)
The USA, and the European colonists who settled North America before the USA was founded, have ghastly, vile historical shames, the most notorious being African slavery and the genocide of First Peoples.
But we have a few radiant moments, too. Of the Statue of Liberty and what it was meant to symbolize and represent, it's impossible to overemphasize the personal, emotional meaning of a century of European immigrants first glimpsing the Statue on the final hours of their voyage to the USA.
It's not so much the "streets paved with gold" the immigrants dreamt lay ahead of them. This was legend, rumor, myth. Sometimes a version of it actually came true.
But they knew as grim, horrible fact what was forever behind them. As their ships sailed past the Statue, they knew they, and their kids, were free of that forever.
My people came from Tsarist Russia. Some entered New York Harbor and got the whole legendary Statue and Ellis Island experience. Another branch came on empty tobacco ships from Hamburg up the Chesapeake Bay to its port cities.
But Russian or Italian or German or Greek, Scandinavian or Yugoslav ... they knew the worst was behind them, and real possibilities of great things lay ahead. Things they could never have had in the Old Country.
There's always been ugly opposition to immigration, no matter who the new wave of immigrants are.
But the ugliest comes when people are fleeing for their lives from war and annihilation. That is the moment they most need America's welcome.
And that is the moment America most needs to remember, with world-class pride, that we are a nation of immigrants, of sanctuary for desperate refugees. Every time we've failed that history, we've lived to be ashamed of our failure. Every time we've welcomed desperate immigrants and refugees, it's made us prouder, stronger, and brought us the admiration -- and the dreams -- of the world.
the US politicials have a short term memory issue unfortunately. awaiting your inevitable post on the elections.
oh...and no post on the canadian elections either?
http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/133752155074
Quick ... gotta run to eat fancy USA Thanksgiving ... BUT for now
for deeply personal reasons, the election of Justin Trudeau as new PM is a world-class Happiness for me.
Although I refused to let psychos chase me out of my birthland, and served as a draftee in the US Army during the Vietnam War, I have forever since regarded Pierre Trudeau as a Ghandi-class World Hero for
(1) opting out of Canadian participation in the Vietnam War and
(2) providing sanctuary (and eventually Canadian citizenship) for American guys who didn't want to serve in the military during Vietnam.
If Justin is a fractional reflection of his father, Canada is in for an era of prosperity, wisdom, peace and enlightenment. (Immediately he ceased Canadian Air Force bombing missions in Syria, though continues to support non-combat Canadian support for the anti-DAESH coalition.)
More later if desired ... or more later if not desired.
Salam and Happy Non-Canadian Thanksgiving!
Hi greaat reading your post
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