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A "Newer" Colossus [1]
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Date: 2023-01-16
"The New Colossus", sonnet by Emma Lazarus (1883), From U.S. National Park Service website.
https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/colossus.htm
It has been years since I read the Emma Lazarus sonnet that is enshrined on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty.
Have a look once again for those of you whose memory is limited to Lines 10-14 (like mine was).
The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, The Great Bartholdi Statue – Liberty Enlightening the World. Source: Wikimedia Commons 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!”
It is interesting to compare the Emma Lazarus poem to the inscription that is believed to have been the dedication text for the ancient Greek statue, the Colossus of Rhodes.
Source: Wikipedia
To you, O Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus, when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy. Not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom and independence. For to the descendants of Herakles belongs dominion over sea and land.
Strikingly, the Rhodes inscription intermingles the concept of “lovely torch of freedom and independence” with concepts like “spoils taken from the enemy” and “dominion over sea and land”, whereas the Liberty inscription speaks of her place as the “mother of exiles”.
Why? Because exiles are not a threat to ordinary residents — like enemy navies and armies are.
Today’s Republicans claim immigrants are a threat to American (i.e. white Christian) culture. They even use imagery of invading armies to describe the homeless wanderers — knowing full well that they are unarmed and not working as an organized battalion. (If they were heavily armed and equipped with rockets and armored vehicles, there would be reports of sieges and murders of border patrol officers along the border quite frequently.)
As usual, the Republicans are on the wrong side of truth on this issue. Wealthy business owners actually approve of immigrants for two reasons — (a) if they are undocumented, they are usually willing to work for lower wages (and get paid under the table), and (b) their countries of origin often have unstable economies so they are willing to work for lower wages (because they, the immigrants, are desperate for a better life).
So the pundits who are funded by wealthy oligarchs must frame “immigration ” as inherently evil (asylum seekers are guilty of lawbreaking) and yet businesses must not be prosecuted for hiring them (because their labor is “needed” for tasks Americans won’t do). Talk about self-contradictory logic!
Perhaps it’s time for a new statue in San Diego or El Paso (which are the two ports of entry at which most asylum seekers arrive). Maybe laborers from Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez could be recruited to do some of the construction work?
Or better still, a recent immigrant could write the poetry.
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