“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-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Emma Lazarus’ inscription on the Statue of Liberty is profoundly noble in it’s eloquent simplicity.  Indeed we are a nation of immigrants…if you are not Native American your ancestors were not born in the United States.  The promise of Ms. Lazarus’ inspiring inscription has never been perfectly implemented but it has the been the shining beacon for people from across the planet to escape oppression, genocide, hunger, and suffering.

I have been watching the mass exodus of Syrians from their war torn country into Europe.  At last count over one million Syrians have flooded Europe in search of the basic necessities of life…that so often I take for granted.  I wonder what would we do if this influx of desperate humanity was seeking refuge in the United States?  What would I do if a desperate Syrian family needed shelter in my home?

During World War II Jewish refugees sought shelter by the light of the lamp beside the golden door…and were turned away…only to be returned to a fate that ought to be unimaginable.

Visit any city…I visited Indianapolis recently…and homeless were numerous around people enjoying seemingly a “need for nothing.”  I heard it said that often we who have avert our eyes from those who have not…in order to not realize that a fellow traveller in this life is suffering…and perhaps we could help a little.

So, we are going to build a wall our candidates for President tell us. A wall that is  stronger and more formidable than ever.  Perhaps like the Berlin Wall.

There is an old saying, “Things Change.”  Heaven help us if there ever is a day that comes that a despot takes over the land of the tired, and the poor, and the huddled masses…and our neighbors to the South are prosperous…and guarding the Wall.