Yesterday marked the 137^th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States.  In 1903, a bronze plaque mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level was inscribed with “The New Colossus,” a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus that welcomed immigrants to the United States with the declaration …

“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.”

A lot has changed since 1903, hasn’t it?  We no longer welcome the ‘tired, poor huddled masses’ but shun them, take their children from them, imprison them, and try to kill them.  Why?  The excuses they use are not reasons, but just excuses.  Bigotry is the biggest reason:  people like to hate on those who are not quite like them.  It seems that a growing portion of the people in this country need someone to hate.  They need someone to blame for their dissatisfaction with their own lives.  Of course, they’ve had help in choosing who to hate … help from vociferous politicians and media commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, not to mention a platform on social media.

The media and politicians tell us lies.  They tell us these are criminals bringing drugs, when the truth is that most are simply families trying to get to safety and a better life, and most illegal drugs brought into this country from south of the border are brought in by U.S. citizens.  But people hear what they want to hear and they will choose to believe that all their problems are a result of immigrants rather than bother looking inward to see how they may be the cause of their own problems.

Seems to me this country has an awful lot of problems these days, and very few of them are a result of immigrants, but rather most are self-inflicted.  I think perhaps we should return the gift of the Statue of Liberty to the people of France, for in my view we no longer deserve it.