Do you know what is written on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty?

Do you know what is engraved on a tablet on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty? No, I'm not asking that you know it's Emma Lazurus's poem "The New Colossus"... that's a response to a Jeopardy! question. I'm asking if you know what it *says*. Her words. And for those who do have an idea, do you believe them? Do they speak to a deeply-felt heart emotion of yours?

For me, I love reading them. I've taken some slack from family, even friends for some of my pro-foreign, anti-home stances (example: not putting the US soccer team first last year on my list of teams for the world cup). But this is an area where I glow American: for me, her poem embodies that which is good, which deserves to be celebrated, about my country.

Here are her words. Read them aloud. See if you don't get goosebumps.

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,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It is from this amazing spirit of unity, of openness, of hospitality, that arises my incredible disdain for the current actions of my government toward immigration - and specifically immigrants. Just this week yet another xenophobic, bigoted state legislature trashed the ideals embodied in her poem, declaring instead the door to be shut. Thank you, sweet home Alabama, where the skies are evidently only for those with blue eyes. You join the ranks of your neighbor Georgia, as well as Kansas, Utah, and Arizona, in your selfishness.

Perhaps some enterprising crowd - maybe North Dakota, whose population peaked in the 1910s and has declined since? - will realize the opportunity and start welcoming again the tempest-tossed. A sorely needed gesture to start blotting out the stain...