Remembering The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Because there are moments for Americans to be reminded about the best of who we are, have been, and may become.

‘We have become destroyers of families and childhood, damaging minds and hearts and bodies. It’s not that we haven’t been here before; it’s that we’ve returned to this as a manifestation of strange ideals and self-definition. We surrender our humanity for a new nationalism. We have laid down the lamp beside the golden door and raised rifles and concentration camps in its place.

We. Actively or passively. We, we, we, we, we.

Remember. Act.”

–Cyrano Moon

The New Colossus
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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”