'Give me your tired
and your poor who can stand
on their own two feet
and who will not become a public charge.'
— Ken Cuccinelli,
(Acting) Director of U.S. Citizenship
& Immigration Services
FUCK YOU, Ken!
If you are on your own two feet,
you are neither tired or poor,
but I guess things change
when someone like you is in charge.
No one said it'd be easy —
but this must be said:
NO ONE has done anything
on their own;
we have all relied on someone else,
no matter where we are from,
or where we are going,
our hands are held,
by loved ones;
by adversaries;
by faith;
by fact;
by some other means.
Democracy is of the people,
the public at large,
citizen or not;
Democracy is of the voice of the voiceless;
our duty is to those in need;
to those who cry simply to live
the lives they never got to live,
but what would you know about that?
You got where you are all on your own.
The role of the government
is the charge of the public,
the citizens,
the denizens,
the ones we swore to protect
from the evils of the world.
So many risking life, spirit, and future;
facing death with a defiant hope,
only to be trodden upon
by the fact that they may never feel alive again.
THE NEW COLOSSUS
by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)*
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!'
___________________________________________________
* Originally written in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), the poem has become a symbol of hope for all those who have come to the United States as a means of safety, acceptance, or simply starting anew. In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level. Its message is just as relevant then as it is now and should be understood by all, as it was not meant as a political statement, but a declaration to all people by what the United States of America stood for and should continue to stand for.
YOU ARE READING
Quotables
PoetryEvery day we come across the words of others, whether they are a real-life person, living or not; or someone entirely fictional and even alien to you and me, but their words make them as real as the air we breathe and the blood which pumps through o...
