I got as far as quoting the poem at the base of statue of liberty & quit. As a poet it is my firm opinion that anyone who takes poetry as policy is not fit to judge either.
The poem is not original to the Statue. It was written by a jew and added 20 years later.
If I remember correctly there was a fund raiser to build the base for the statute. Part of that effort was a writing contest & that poem was selected, I presume, by the people raising the money. I just find it frustrating that some people point to a poem that became attached to an international gift celebrating liberty & claim that any policy that doesn't strictly adhere to the theme of poem is unacceptable. It's nonsense & I lament that such thinking is so ingrained in our political discourse.
We need to attach our message to a statue, and defer to that.
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