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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhat "America" represents in the world and in history. A reminder.
The Statue of LibertyThe title of the poem and the first two lines refer to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The poem talks about the millions of immigrants who came to the United States (many of them through Ellis Island at the port of New York).
The "air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame" refers to New York City and Brooklyn, not yet consolidated into one unit in 1898.
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!"
Let's try to choose a candidate who can make us live up to that.
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What "America" represents in the world and in history. A reminder. (Original Post)
pdsimdars
May 2016
OP
Well at this point it is a beacon of horseshit followed by a fleet of drones.
Warren Stupidity
May 2016
#1
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)1. Well at this point it is a beacon of horseshit followed by a fleet of drones.
Back then we did in fact accept almost everyone, except of course the Chinese, who we explicitly excluded ( May 6, 1882). Now we are at war all over the planet, engaged in an official and financially ruinous policy of absolute military superiority over all nations combined, and we cannot even bother to take in more than a handful of the refugees from the mess we have created in the middle east.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)2. It's good every now and then to polish off the dream of what we were supposed to represent
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)3. This always chokes me up, get that tight throat when I read it.
Tarc
(10,472 posts)4. Oh god, if my eyeroll was audible, it'd shatter glass