Lady Liberty - one of the most powerful symbols of our country.
Liberty of course, is her defining feature
Liberty - the hope that was uttered to her in prayer from the incoming migrants
But Emma Lazarus, a Jew, a poet was not so literal.
Within her poem lies a protest.
Have you ever stopped to think about the TITLE?
Have you paused on the first couplet before reciting the poem’s most famous lines?
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…
This statue is NOT Colossus, she says, the brazen giant of Greek fame
The statue of Helios in Rhodes’ harbor,
built in 280 BC to commemorate the successful defense against military attack.
He stood arrogant, his masculine might exposed, muscle on display
and an earthquake brought him down.
Some records say that the fallen giant was pillaged by Arabs
and the scrap metal was sold to a “certain Jew”
(You can hear the derision dripping from the pen of the Byzantine historian)
This statue, says Lazarus, is NOT THAT.
She is not here to intimidate - she is here to welcome.
Not cocky, hateful history behind her.
She looks toward the horizon,
the moral arc of the universe,
longing.
She is NOT military and conquest,
She is hope, compassion, a MOTHER.
A Mother of EXILES, even.
Not history’s victors.
If anything, she calls to those who have lost.
Because not all of history’s victors are winners
And its losers are not waste.
In fact, if we follow the horizon,
the moral arc of history long enough,
we will see it is the tempest-tossed,
the tired, the poor, the huddled masses
Who make history,
Who build society,
Who write the poems
and build the movements.
With her mild eyes, she commands
the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
You know who had mild eyes?
Our foremother Leah,
The less loved, the rejected
And yet she too birthed our people.
And so now, a new generation seeks
what so many others have sought,
To build a life of liberty,
To step through the golden door of possibility.
Whether travelling from far beyond our shores
Or already within our borders
May the most vulnerable be met with compassion.
May protest remain a protected right
May the law of our land be upheld with dignity
And should we need to defend, let us defend with dignity
May every official, every enforcement officer,
Every citizen and every resident
Live each day in such a way that they can hold their head high
Like Lady Liberty does.
Her torch’s flame possesses lightening
But the lightning is never dispatched. It is restrained.
Because it is not a weapon but a beacon.
It is light.
Light, held—not hurled.
Light that beckons
Light that leads the way.
Dignity, life, shining.
