20160624 (refugees)

Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his country -- takes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys him. Man has done this in all the ages. There is not an acre of ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle after cycle, by force and bloodshed.
"The Lowest Animal" Mark Twain

"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,

After watching the segment about

Immigration at the turn of the 20th

Century that fed thousands of poor

And dispossessed into New York

In an astonishingly moving 

Documentary, my thoughts turned

To the plight of Syrian and Middle

Eastern refugees and of our country’s

Thus far accepting so few by world

Comparison. Taking in foreigners

Either temporarily or as permanent

Residents has revealed how insincerely

Newly settled peoples and those of

So called first families held Emma

Lazarus’s profoundly sympathetic

Statement. America could be 

Characterized as having this 

Welcoming heart as immigrants

Approached Ellis Island and saw

The statue from the front. But

Having cleared the process 

And been dumped into the 

Lower East Side, immigrants

And their progeny appeared 

To have shut the door behind 

Them. Once they'd scrambled

Up to some position of wealth

And means they quickly forgot

The story of their salvation and

Said, “No more.” Not only were

Their forebears regarded as the

“Worst batch of peasants ever 

Accepted as citizens to be, least

Educated, least prepared for the

Labor awaiting them,” some 

Thought to say, “Europe is

Vomiting.” They had forgotten

That Georgia was settled by 

Criminals exiled from England.

But what they forgot most was

How this land had become 

Theirs, ignored what hypocrites

They were to deny others’ entry.

Twain’s remark appeared after

Lazarus’s and disclosed a more 

Cynical view of land promised

To one people or another. No

One is born with a deed in their

Behind marking them for

This place or that. If we’ve

Been in one place a while we

Come to regard it as ours and

The law recognizes that. But 

In a larger sense we're in one 

Boat with none guaranteed 

This or that seat, especially in 

A country founded on ethnic 

Cleansing of its inhabitants, its

Enslavement of other nations,

Its exclusion of refugees seeking 

Haven from one of the vilest

Genocides of the twentieth

Century. A fortress America? Is

That what we’ve become? A great

Gated middle class on stolen land?

c. J.S.Manista, 2016