DEUTERONOMY 10:12-22
MATTHEW 11:28-30
Gordon E. Ellis
July 1, 2007
DEAR LADY LIBERTY
Dear Lady Liberty,
The 4th of July is this week, our DAY each year to CELEBRATE America! And EVERY 4th of July, I think of YOU, Lady Liberty! And I suspect that MOST Americans DO. After all: YOU are so SYMBOLIC of this great nation, and we are SO proud of you!
I remember VISITING you in New York Harbor not TOO many years ago. You sure are IMPRESSIVE as you stand there in ALL your GLORY. But I HAVE to tell you that what I love MOST about you are the WORDS of Emma Lazarus, inscribed at your BASE:
Give me your TIRED, your POOR,
your huddled masses YEARNING to breathe FREE;
the wretched REFUSE of your TEEMING shore.
Send THESE, your HOMELESS, TEMPTEST-tossed, to ME;
I LIFT my lamp BESIDE the golden DOOR.
Yes, Lady Liberty, I LOVE those words! I GUESS it’s because they remind me of JESUS saying: Come to ME, all YOU that are WEARY and are carrying heavy BURDENS, and I will give you REST. (Matthew 11:28) The INVITATIONS are remarkably SIMILAR, aren’t they? You know: I ALWAYS felt GOOD that my LORD and my COUNTRY are FOUNDED on the SAME convictions, and this SAME invitation.
Similarly, it’s a little bit like the LAW of GOD in The Book of Deuteronomy: that WE are to WELCOME those who NEED us, because GOD executes JUSTICE for the ORPHAN and the WIDOW, and LOVES the strangers, providing them FOOD and clothing. And God tells US in verse 19: YOU shall ALSO love the STRANGER, for YOU were strangers in the land of EGYPT. Well, the Hebrew word translated as STRANGERS here, should ACTUALLY be translated ALIENS or FOREIGNERS. And of course, THAT’S how AMERICA was BUILT! WE have ALWAYS thought of ourselves as the LAND of opportunity, with PLENTY to go around for ALL who want to COME here to escape TYRANNY or wretchedness or POVERTY in their HOMELAND. And SO, over the centuries, Lady Liberty, YOU have INVITED people. YOU have BECKONED people to COME to America, and be PART of our MELTING pot, [which REALLY ought to be called a STEW pot, so that, LIKE the carrots and the potatoes in a pot of STEW, people who come here can KEEP their culture and traditions, their IDENTITY, instead of GIVING it UP in order to LIVE here]. But, that’s ALWAYS been your MESSAGE, hasn’t it, Lady Liberty? You’ve ALWAYS said to one and all: COME to America! WE will welcome you here! We have OPPORTUNITIES for you here! And that invitation is such a BLESSING, ESPECIALLY to the world’s SUFFERING. It makes me PROUD to be an American.
RECENTLY, however, something has CHANGED! Lady Liberty, I’m NOW seeing a mood of MEANNESS pervading this land of opportunity. I’m NOW hearing of people wanting to CLOSE that golden DOOR beside which YOU lift your LAMP. I’m NOW witnessing people attempting to GAG the Lady with the LAMP, and UN-INVITE those you BECKON to our shores. I’m NOW seeing WALLS being BUILT along our BORDER with Mexico, and HOSTILE immigration agents invading nearby New Haven just a DAY after a vote to CARE for the foreigner in our midst. Just a few WEEKS ago, near Dallas, Texas, 62% of the voters in a little town called Farmer’s Branch, chose to BAN illegal immigrants from LIVING in their town, though their VOTE was quickly OVERTURNED by a Superior COURT judge. BUT, over 80 towns have now adopted The Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which BANS landlords from RENTING to undocumented workers, and gives landlords FINES that range from $250 per day in Hazelton, Illinois up to $1000 per day in Riverside, New Jersey, just for renting to ALIENS. So, in effect, LANDLORDS are NOW required to serve as immigration POLICE -- from Arcadia, Wisconsin to the historic village of Sandwich on Cape Cod.
And I am very CONCERNED about this CHANGE that I’m seeing, Lady Liberty. And it’s NOT just out THERE somewhere. It’s right here in my OWN community as well! I’m hearing DEROGATORY comments, for example, about the number of people from INDIA who are moving into Southington. Someone recently described Cider Mill Estates as little New Delhi. There are COMMENTS about how many unrelated people live in HOUSES together, and JOKES about HOW many Indian MEN can fit in a Toyota. And I’m told that THESE bigoted remarks are NOTHING compared to what’s circulating at the high school. How SAD that IS!
Now, I SUSPECT that ALL of these comments, along with the increasing number of towns embracing The Illegal Immigration Relief Act EXPOSE an epidemic of FEAR that is sweeping our nation: fear of people who are DIFFERENT, fear of people with different LIFESTYLES, and of course, FEAR of losing JOBS and money to FOREIGNERS. But there is NO excuse for BIGOTRY and PREJUDICE. REGARDLESS of what MOTIVATES these comments, they are NOT Christian, and as YOU can attest, Lady Liberty, they are NOT even AMERICAN! BUT they’re part of a disturbing MOOD in America today.
I SHOULDN’T be SURPRISED. EVERY time Americans think they have reason to FEAR, the SAME thing happens. From the Gold Rush of 1849 until the turn of the 20th century, weren’t Chinese miners and merchants, lumberjacks and field workers, prostitutes and merchants’ wives, gathered up at GUNPOINT and driven OUT of some 200 towns, often along the very RAILROAD tracks that THEY had just BUILT? And during the Great Depression, weren’t some 2 MILLION Mexicans and Mexican Americans DEPORTED under Herbert Hoover’s Mexican Repatriation Act. And when that happened, 60% of the CHILDREN among them were U.S. citizens. And wasn’t it back in 1939 and ‘40 when the golden door BESIDE which you LIFT your lamp was CLOSED to JEWS, who were refused REFUGE from their SCORCHING in Hitler’s OVENS? Then, in 1942, on the OTHER side of the continent, wasn’t your golden DOOR closed to JAPANESE Americans, as they were HERDED off to Tuley Lake and OTHER concentration camps? And of course, to Southern BLACKS, didn’t that golden door beside which you LIFT your LAMP serve ONLY as a CELLAR door to SLAVE quarters, LONG before it became a TRAP door to urban BLIGHT? No, I SHOULDN’T be SURPRISED, Lady Liberty. SINCE our country’s INCEPTION, politicians have ALWAYS debated WHO should receive OPEN arms and WHO should receive COLD shoulders from America. And NOW, the politicians are AT it AGAIN as they debate a NEW law called The SECURE Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
But, I’m VERY concerned, Lady Liberty. First of all, there’s SO much INEQUITY! WHY, for example, can PHYSICIANS come here, but NOT the SICK? And HOW can WE, in good conscience, keep out the POOR, when so MUCH of what KEEPS them LOCKED in the grip of POVERTY in their OWN countries is the RESULT of our OWN multinational CORPORATIONS taking ADVANTAGE of them, and our OWN government SUBSIDIZING U.S. farmers, so that it’s actually CHEAPER to buy U.S. corn in other countries than it is to produce their OWN corn? Yes, THESE are questions that I’m CONCERNED about! And as a NATION, WE need to ADDRESS them, because THESE questions have a LOT to DO with WHO comes here, and WHY. And I’d SURE hate to see our GOLDEN door become a LEADEN door, slamming SHUT in the face of the world’s POOR and DOWNTRODDEN.
Now, I have to ADMIT that I’M not WISE enough to know what’s going to happen with the IMMIGRATION issue, or even WISE enough to know what SHOULD happen, because of COURSE, we CAN’T just open our borders to EVERYONE. There HAS to be LAWS and STANDARDS. But I DO know that the BIBLE is CLEAR about HOW we must TREAT the STRANGERS in our land. And I DO know that there are 12 MILLION illegal immigrants living among us TODAY, and working HARD in our land, doing jobs that MOST of us don’t WANT. And they’re DOING it for MEAGER wages. Yes, the BIBLE is CLEAR! And YOU have been CLEAR as well, Lady Liberty. You see: IF we want to remain a nation that we can be PROUD of, AND a nation that’s on GOD’S side -- [Because God doesn’t TAKE sides, EXCEPT for being on the side of the POOR and the OPPRESSED, the WIDOW and the ORPHAN, as we see very CLEARLY in the Bible. Instead, God is constantly calling US, and EVERY nation, to place OURSELVES on GOD’S side by living according to GOD’S values.] -- but IF we want to REMAIN a nation that we can be PROUD of, AND a nation that’s on GOD’S side, then we BETTER learn to take CARE of the STRANGERS and FOREIGNERS among us. And so, Lady Liberty, I’LL keep REMINDING people if YOU will. And maybe if we work TOGETHER, we can make a DIFFERENCE in the WAY people THINK today, as well as in the POLICIES that GOVERN this great nation! Yes, MAYBE, just MAYBE! Well, I hope you have a GREAT day on the 4th of July, Lady Liberty! It’s YOUR day! So be SURE to CELEBRATE it! Amen.
Sources:
1. B. Loewe: The Losing End of Compromise: Today’s Immigration Reform (towardfreedom.com)
2. Jean Pfaelzer: Ethnic Cleansing in Small Town America (towardfreedom.com)