Don’t let the Trump administration vandalize Lady Liberty’s inspiring message
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This week, the Trump administration ventured into poetry, and the results are not pretty.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, offered his own revision of one of America’s most famous poems, “The New Colossus.” On Tuesday, during a discussion of new changes to immigration regulations, NPR’s Rachel Martin asked, “Would you also agree that Emma Lazarus’s words etched on the Statue of Liberty — ‘Give me your tired, your poor’ — are also part of the American ethos?”
“They certainly are,” Cuccinelli replied, and then he offered up this spontaneous improvement: “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”
Don’t try singing that — the rhythm is off. And so few words rhyme with “public charge.” Maybe “vile discharge”?
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