We Are All Immigrants
Saturday, January 30th, 2016My great grandfather was an immigrant from Luxembourg, and I can no longer allow the hateful speech against immigrants to stand.
We are a nation founded on “the firm belief” that all persons are created equal, and that all have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, no matter who we are or how we got here.
And those rights and that happiness is deserved, equally, by the indigenous people already here, and by the men and women brought to this nation, shamefully, in chains.
Millions have left their homes in other countries in search of sanctuary from religious persecution, in search of freedom, to escape tyranny.
We, the people, must reject the divisive rhetoric aimed toward those whose religion or nationality is different from ours.
The statue of Liberty beckons what we know to be true, in the words of Emma Lazarus:
“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!”
Please, reject the hate spewed from the lips of fearmongers.
Please, look at these men and women who risked everything, many walked for hundreds of miles, to escape brutality.
No one should have their religion, their homeland, denigrated here.
Everyone deserves a smile, a hand, a chance.
“Welcome to the United States of America.”