Reading the following and for the umpteenth time the Emma Lazarus poem at the Statue of Liberty I was moved to write some verse.
"Postponing Bartholdi's statue until there is liberty for colored as well". The Cleveland Gazette. Cleveland, Ohio. November 27, 1886.
Shortly after the dedication in 1886, The Cleveland Gazette, an African American newspaper, suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until the United States became a free nation "in reality":
"Liberty enlightening the world," indeed! The expression makes us sick. This government is a howling farce. It can not or rather does not protect its citizens within its own borders. Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the "liberty" of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and industrious colored man to earn a respectable living for himself and family, without being ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the "liberty" of this country "enlightening the world," or even Patagonia, is ridiculous in the extreme. en.wikipedia.org/…
Mother of Exiles,
Libertas,
eyes of copper
Rain, snow, sleet wind whipped
always wide open
unblinking welcoming
five score and twenty years
torch imprisoned lightening
soaring
welcoming those yearning souls
to a country not yet free as free for all,
reminded now the words from Cleveland*
hold now true in Trumpland
and those metal eyes clench shut and shed a tear
====
then the iron and steel spine
that held through two world wars
the granite base anchored against every storm
the entire being that is liberty and justice for all
resolve,
resolve,
her eyes open
her unblinking copper gaze
again says welcome
and the earth moves
a new word issues forth
protect
the silent word resonates
protect
protect
and echoes to the very core
of America
and reminds us
who we are