Inscription on the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Bullshit. "No vancancy."
Wretched bastards of the world, hear this:
Just because you are poor, tired, sick, or threatened by your government or somebody who lives back home, that doesn't give you the right to emigrate to this country, where we have established - through the expenditure of a lot of blood and treasure - a stable, generous, mainly-competent government, and where we don't kill each other because of our religion, political affiliation, race (usually), or ethnic group.
And you are especially unwelcome if you intend to bring with you beliefs, philosophies, practices, and prejudices that are antithetical to everything we have spent that last couple hundred years developing. And don't bother coming here if your intention is to live in an enclave of your back-home culture where you will do your best to avoid becoming "American."
And if we do let you in, you damn-well better be willing to learn the language, and make some measurable contribution after you get here. You will notice that we Americans treasure our right to criticize our government, but if we catch you doing it we might just send you back where you came from. And good riddance!
I think we need to put a new plaque on the Statue of Liberty.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Bullshit. "No vancancy."
Wretched bastards of the world, hear this:
Just because you are poor, tired, sick, or threatened by your government or somebody who lives back home, that doesn't give you the right to emigrate to this country, where we have established - through the expenditure of a lot of blood and treasure - a stable, generous, mainly-competent government, and where we don't kill each other because of our religion, political affiliation, race (usually), or ethnic group.
And you are especially unwelcome if you intend to bring with you beliefs, philosophies, practices, and prejudices that are antithetical to everything we have spent that last couple hundred years developing. And don't bother coming here if your intention is to live in an enclave of your back-home culture where you will do your best to avoid becoming "American."
And if we do let you in, you damn-well better be willing to learn the language, and make some measurable contribution after you get here. You will notice that we Americans treasure our right to criticize our government, but if we catch you doing it we might just send you back where you came from. And good riddance!
I think we need to put a new plaque on the Statue of Liberty.
