“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!” This is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Written in a time when this country welcomed immigrants to help build a diverse and thriving society. Today the caveat should read: “We no longer want your wretched masses, we have plenty of our own.”
The great society, once built on the backs of those who swarmed to that golden door, is now seeing the demise of what they tried to build. The plan was to assimilate all creeds, races and cultures into one homogenous nation where no one would see color, no one would strip you of your beliefs, we would all be one giant melting pot of citizens of the greatest country on the face of the earth. Ironically, the die had already been cast when we wrested these lands from the Native Americans who were here first.
The greatest threat to our society today and the people who are leading us on this whole demise lies with two political parties who diametrically oppose each other. There is little common ground. We have the conservatives who say let the rich reign and they will help pave the way for all people. It’s been tried and it has failed time after time. They always ignore the greed factor. Then we have the liberals who say we will take care of you. We will give you stipends after stipends instead of any real incentive to work your way out of poverty. The liberal policies of today don’t help poverty as much as perpetuate it. But it buys them a lot of votes.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
