Monday, January 31, 2011

"Vitter and Rand would extinguish the welcoming light held aloft"

Mark Karlin

Senators David Vitter and Rand Paul are introducing legislation to deny US birthright status, guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, to children born on American territory to "illegal immigrants."

What's missing from the proposed law - if passed - is that it needs to require the removal of Emma Lazarus's poem, written in 1883, from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. In "The New Colussus," Lazarus intones:

"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!"

In fact, just remove the Statue of Liberty itself from New York Harbor and replace it with a giant "no vacancy" sign.

Nah. That would involve government spending. Just cover the poem with a placard that reads "Whites Only".

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