Appreciates column
Thank you for Sunday’s “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” (Birney Imes, Partial to home).
I have been finding some gems of encouragement since the attack in Paris, and this column was one of them. Another was hearing Willie Nelson singing “The Promised Land” (“room for everyone, living in the promiseland”). The song begins with lines from the “The New Colossus,” the sonnet by Emma Lazarus displayed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty (it is interesting that Emma Lazarus was an activist for refugees fleeing antisemitism and the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France).
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Mike Murphy
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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