Standing tall and resolute with a beacon of hope in her hand, Lady Liberty, calls across the oceans and peers beyond the horizon, echoing to all who dare hear her cry:

“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!”

The poem, The New Colossus, written by Emma Lazarus in 1883, is published in its entirety on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty at the National Monument in New York. Ascribing the name “Mother of Exiles” to the statue, Lazarus captures the progressive spirit of America that built a free, compassionate, and hopeful new world. With “silent lips” and a determined gaze, Mother insists upon storied lands and nations to send their migrants to us—home of the brave and land of the free.

Today, America is turning its back on Mother of Exiles, and in doing so, our legacy and promise to ourselves, our ancestors, and the world. We are closing our borders, isolating ourselves from longtime allies and friends, inhumanely detaining and deporting huddled masses yearning to be free, and extinguishing our lamp by shutting the golden door to those who cannot pay their way in. We are telling an alternative story of our past no longer built on the hopeful ideals that created the new colossus known as the United States of America. Instead, our elected and unelected leaders are actively erasing the past and our progress in favor of a calloused and narcissistic future. An ideal that amasses power and creates enemies.

Like an exclusive oceanside club the majority of Americans cannot attain, we are erecting physical and invisible walls, closing ourselves off to our neighbors, and building a wider divide between the rich and the poor within our own country. For those caught in a shrinking and stressed middle class under the assumption the wealthy and powerful will save us, history tells us they will soon forget, leaving us all behind. This is the beginning of a New America: home of the afraid and land of the oppressed.

Taller walls, inhumane deportations, and dominance through intimidation and force do not inspire hope—they undermine it. 

Hope is the birthright of all humankind. Hope is an inheritance that knows no borders, no conditions, and no exceptions. Hope is built on empathy for all people. Hope creates change because it envisions a world that is not yet, but within our collective strength to realize and achieve. Hope believes everyone belongs and contributes to making the world a more equitable and thriving home. Hope believes collaboration and peacemaking are the enduring principles of a brighter and prosperous future. 

Hope unlocks the possibilities of a better tomorrow when we humbly listen and courageously take action with grace and truth.

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.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus