The Golden Door

Do you still see it?

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!
       ~ Emma Lazarus

Talk about painting a mental picture...

That poem helped raise the money that built the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

The statue itself was a gift from France, and tourists and visitors from all over the world can still read that promise before they begin the long climb upwards, to look out over New York City.

Where did that America go?

When did we lose our confidence, our spirit of generosity that offered hope to the hopeless?

America is still seen as that hope to an overwhelming number of the world's most desperate people.

That's the thing. America is more than a country.

America is an idea. America is a promise.

This is an ugly time in our country, when the mirror we hold up to each other reflects back hate and pettiness, selfishness, profanity and discord, rage and self-righteousness.

But it doesn't have to be, and you don't have to be part of that cynicism and xenophobia.

You don't have to talk politics or take a side to offer hope and belief when it's so badly needed.

You don't have to spread fear and doubt.

You have a choice.

They're listening to you.

What you say today matters.

Be a fountain, and not a drain.