Today on NPR I heard a story about the current brew-ha-ha involving immigration policy and the Statue of Liberty. Long before this current heated conversation I wrote a book which had this poem, The New Colossus, as its central theme. Here is a short excerpt.
“I still can’t see where you are going with this,” answered Katie.
“I’m not surprised,” answered Lesedi. “It was one of my tasks to do long-term and far-reaching research on trends and political movements so my country could predict the outcomes with some level of certainty instead of being caught flat-footed when the outcome happened. Skip forward many decades to now. A time when only a handful of World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors remain to tell the story first hand. A new book comes out called ‘Atlas Shrugged.’ Many of its followers claim it demonstrates a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest.”
“The morality of rational self-interest?” questioned Katie.
“Good,” said Lesedi.
“Good what?” questioned one of the boys from the back.
“She recognizes the two things are diametrically opposed,” answered Lesedi. “Rational self-interest is never moral. Many call it ‘Me and My Syndrome’ because your only interest is in yourself and your family, but, mostly yourself. It is exactly what you see right now. Looting, raping, and murder. Living for the moment and your own benefit without fear of consequences or consideration of any other living being. Are any of you aware of what the plaque on the Statue of Liberty says?”
“Something about your tired and poor,” said one of the boys.
“Huddled masses,” said the other.
“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,” quoted Lesedi. He drove in silence for a while until Katie finally spoke up, “You memorized that?”
“When I arrived in this country I went to that island and sat staring in wonder at that statue every Sunday, weather and schedule permitting for the first year,” answered Lesedi. “Part of my job was to figure out how a country that had spent nearly two centuries not only living up to that quote but showing the world how to do things right could turn into such a piece of shit in a short span of time. Don’t get me wrong, my government had no intention of fixing the problem. They simply wanted to avoid it happening to our home. We have recently come out of Apartheid and could not risk a downward spiral into the septic tank America has become.”
“Could we stay on just one topic,” asked the boy sitting behind Katie.
“It is all one topic,” responded Lesedi after taking a drink of water. After another drink he said, “It just took me a long time to figure out. I’m not surprised you are confused. I had to spend a lot of Sunday afternoons sitting on an island staring at the Statue of Liberty to put it all together. The people who follow ‘rational self-interest’ shit on that statue with every breath they take. I’m sorry, but there is no polite way to put it. America became a septic tank because it is no longer run by Americans.”
“So you are saying foreign governments have taken over,” asked Katie.
“No,” answered Lesedi. “I’m saying America is no longer run by Americans. They were born here, but they are not Americans. For nearly two centuries America not only lived up to that quote, nearly every American believed it. Today, most people born here don’t even know the quote exists so they do not know ‘rational self-interest’ is diametrically opposed to being an American. I am told the followers of this belief think you should never give a meal to a starving man or child. You should never throw a coin in a beggar’s cup, and, most offensively, the government has no responsibility to ensure the welfare of its people.”
