Mother of Exiles


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,
I send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door

Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus

Read that... then read it again... then read it again. Get up kiss your children, your wife, your husband, or significant other and thank god that there was a time when their ancestors could come here unfettered with the hope of a new life on new shores. We are, and always have been, a nation of immigrants and it is on their backs that we have gained the position we hold in the world community today.

As some of you already know, Rep. Sensenbrenner (R, WI- 5), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee has foisted this bill unto congress. The "Border Patrol, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" has already passed through the House and currently sits before the Senate and pretty much seeks to destroy any ground illegal immigrants have in the hope for a new life in this country, while punishing anyone who helps them. The bill seeks to, among other things, turn illegal immigration into a felony and make helping illegal immigrants a felony. Of all the bone headed.... First, like we don't have enough inmates (*cough cough* drug war *cough cough*) Second, these people are fleeing a really crappy situation and hoping for a better life for their families, much like some buckle shoe wearing religious seperatists we remember every November. Third, talk about shooting yourself in the face, this is gonna make every person of Latin American ancestry hate the administration.

Oh and by the way, Sensenbrenner is the same guy who attached the Real ID act to an omnibus military spending bill to get it passed. I'm pretty sure he's a fascist... more Mussolini than Hitler though, i don't think... well i don't even like where this is going, suffice it to say I'm pretty sure he's a nut bag.

I was going to go into a long diatribe about republicans and how they purport to be the most patriotic among us, yet seek to do some of the most un-american things i can think of, but really... we've all heard it before. So I'll just say this. We are a nation born and built on the backs of immigrants, with few exceptions, everyone who lives here is or comes from an immigrant. Without illegal immigrants the west would not work, and we owe it to them to give them every chance possible to seek a new and better life north of the border and to do it in a way that doesn't increase the number of angry brown people in this country. God bless the protesters from Cleveland, to Dallas, to Los Angles and the message they carry in their voices and their hearts. I'm with you guys.