We have forgotten the example of Lady Liberty
Column by Abe Villarreal some excerpts:
What would we be as a country if we restricted the entry of these new Americans? What would we look like, physically and ethnically? What inventions or innovations would have we missed? What businesses and communities would be absent from our history?
But today we dont have a desire to stand tall and hold a bright light. We are afraid of what we dont know. We see people that dont look like us and we turn away. We convince ourselves that they are uneducated and sickly. We tell each other that these poor people must be criminals that have nothing to add to our country.
Lady Liberty never closes her eyes. She doesnt even squint. She looks forward eternally, never turning her back. Her light is always on. Her tablets carry the same message, reminding us that independence is a gift to all.
Abe Villarreal is a columnist for the online Grant County Beat and an assistant dean at Western New Mexico University in Silver City.