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For The Fourth Of July, 1; Question For Certain Kind Of 'Patriot,' And His Answer
The innkeeper's policies? "Keep out the different
"by our holy standards; keep out the ignorant
"of our onrolling standards---most of the immigrant
"masses; those who disrespect, or question, or abuse
"our customs and values . . . the 'wretched refuse'
"mentioned on the Base of the Statue of Liberty
"in Emma Lazarus' poetry,
"Emma Lazarus, descendant of them emigrant Jews."
Here, presented is a sharp
Here, presented is a sharp and necessary question: What happens when the gatekeeper forgets the spirit of the gate?
It confronts a kind of patriotism that clings to exclusion while standing beneath a monument built to welcome.
Emma Lazarus, in “The New Colossus,” gave the Statue of Liberty not just a torch, but a voice—one that cried out:
That voice was not a whisper of tolerance—it could be seen as a declaration of allegiance to the displaced, the desperate, the different.
Lazarus, herself descended from Jewish immigrants, understood that America’s greatness was not in its walls, but in its open door.
So when the “innkeeper” in the poem speaks of keeping out the “wretched refuse,” he is not defending American values—he is betraying them.
He quotes Lazarus, but forgets her meaning. He invokes the statue, but denies its soul.
To answer the poem’s question through Lazarus’ lens: True patriotism does not fear the foreign—it remembers that it once was.
And it lifts its lamp, not to blind, but to guide.
here is poetry that doesn't always conform
galateus, arkayye, arqios,arquious, crypticbard, excalibard, wordweaver
Thank you, a thousand times
Thank you, a thousand times over, for this kind of understanding. Your shrewd understanding, evidenced in your comment, has perfectly explicated the poem and my intention for it. My mother and her five sibs were First Generation Americans, children of two "right off the boat" immigrants. Her father was one of the "dirty Irish" who were treated, in the early 20th century, similarly to the way our society treats Hispanic immigrants and transients now.
Starward-Led [in Chrismation, Januarius]