by Rev. Joda Collins.
Chauncey Mitchell Depew (1834 - 1928) was an attorney for Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad interests, president of the New York Central Railroad System, and a United States Senator from New York from 1899 to 1911. Mr. Depew gave a lengthy dedication speech at the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886. At the end of that speech he stated the sentence noted above, "There is room in America...." You will find that sentence on page 34 of at the following website. (1).
The plaque on the Statue of Liberty which reads as reproduced below was not on the Statue of Liberty when the Statue was unveiled and dedicated in 1886 and played no role in its unveiling. (2). It was added in 1903. (3).
"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!",
The above quote does not mean America welcomes to our shores those who intend to destroy us, our way of life, trample our honored customs or change our laws. Nor does it mean that every tired or poor person, all who come in huddled masses including the deceased, the mentally deranged and/or the criminally insane yearning to breathe free have unchallenged right of entry, that every wretched refuse of a person from every teeming (crowded) shore (country) or that every person without a home and every tempest-tossed (troubled person or person in trouble) is automatically authorized to enter America.
It only takes a modicum of common sense to know you do not open your home to aid and abide the enemy; nor do you destroy yourself or your own in an effort to accommodate the world. Limits on invitation are based on ability for accommodation and desire to accommodate and cannot outweigh the right of self-preservation. Once generosity becomes a mandate, it ceases to be generosity and becomes thievery. Once overwhelming kindness becomes an order "or else," it is slavery. When you place on a foundation more than the foundation can sustain it is stupidity.
The Statue of Liberty is not and never was a symbol of open borders, unrestricted immigration and unending welfare payments. Only an idiot thinks it is. Sadly, this generation has no shortage of idiots.
Rev . Joda Collins
www.jodacollins/spotlight/lulu.com
I make no claim that anyone else agrees with me.
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