Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The New Colossus - a footnote

With apologies to Emma Lazarus:


The Woman with the torch looks out to sea
And tells the world, "I'm changing my criteria.
Send all your homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
Unless they come from Mexico or Syria."

1 comment:

Cal said...

One former principal at the school where I work used to say that wherever there's been a war, that's where our kids are from. This turned out not to be a broad enough claim. We had kids from a few countries where other catastrophes had sent people running of the borders, too, most notably Haiti. But remembering her claim, I expected that after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars got going, we would see in influx of kids from there, too. But we didn't. In fact, to my knowledge, we haven't had any families at all from either one. We do have a few Muslim families in the neighborhood now, but not a real Muslim community. Maybe Lady Liberty and her new criteria have been at work for longer than we think. I'll let you know, one way or the other, if we get any kids from Syria. If the woman with the torch doesn't want them, we'll take them.