The Emma Lazarus poem "The New Colossus" was written for the Statue of Liberty, engraved on a bronze plaque in 1903. The plaque is located on a wall of the museum in the base of the Statue. (It has never been engraved on the monument itself). In its famous culminating lines, Liberty says
"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!"


Shame on US
What have we done
to our poor, tired huddled masses
trapped like rats
and neglected as rubbish,
refuse washed up from
someone else’s teeming shore
when a bayou, delta, and
a tempest soaked city
became homeless, hopeless?

How could sit on our hands
and watched the disabled
children and elderly
those who depend on the
kindness of strangers suffocating
as they struggle to breathe free?

In New York’s harbor
a grand lady shines
her bright torch
a beacon of freedom
she hold the key
to the golden door
which welcomes us all.

Today Lady Liberty hangs
her head in shame.
She never dreamed
we would turn our backs
on each other.

09/04/05