Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, but no black Haitians

[mopaul]

Anytime I see 'boat people' coming to America to be free, I'm reminded of the words on the base of the Statue of Liberty. What a heartbreaking site, hundreds of desperate people, escaping tyranny and chaos, risking everything and clinging to life at it's basest level. I remember when the Cuban boat people came here by the thousands in the 70's. And to think that bush would turn the Haitians away. Even worse, he told them not to even bother coming here.

So the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty,

"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-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

those words don't apply to Haitians, the least among us as Christ might say, yearning to breathe free is all they want, and they heard that America is the land of the free. A land with a democracy that welcomes all, from any corner of the world, a home, where there is no chaos in the streets.

Lady Liberty also holds her hand out to stop Mexican farm workers from living here. They can live here as slaves, in shacks, barely alive, but then out they go, back to Mexico.

So what color, or nationality is Lady Liberty? I know she's green, and her features are quite Greek, or at least European. Does she differentiate by color or creed, those who are welcomed into our America? How can a president of America, the land of the free, turn back people just offshore, who can see America with their own eyes after a perilous journey across the ocean? Send them back to certain doom. Men, women, and children, yearning to breathe free.

One has to wonder, is it because they are black? What if they were Irish boat people, or Latvian? What if they were Iraqis, or Palestinians? What if a boatload of Haitians, and Italians floated in at the same time? Who would be welcomed, and who turned back?

The political situation in Haiti is chaotic, and that's a whole other story. I just want to know, how a president who boasts of his compassion and devotion to Christ, can tell peoples of any nation, or any color, or any religion, that they are not welcome in MY America. What's "in his heart" that he can turn away the least among us, the most desperate, the most in need of democracy and freedom. His heart is obviously made of cold, lifeless gold.

[Kamika]

1. we did the same to kosovonians

so I'm not surprised

[kayell]

2. It's amazing that Lady Liberty

hasn't just said fuck it all and waded back to France.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

3. Cubans are welcomed, Haitians are turned away

politics and racism as usual...

[Thucydides]

4. "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of Mexican

migrant farm workers, we need more cheap labor! Sarcasm off.

on edit: the sarcasm was not directed at your statement mopaul, sorry if it reads that way.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. You didn't hear

W rewrote that part. It nows says, 'Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who will vote republican, otherwise tough luck sucker.'

[papau]

6. By Friday 800 Haitians had been stopped by the Navy this week!

another item not brought to you by the mass media.

Indeed, I can not find out if they were just turned round, or escorted, or sent to a drop off point

Damn good thing we have a free media.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. They were sent back to Haiti

unlike last time, these folks don't even get to go to Gitmo anymore, not since we filled it up with Afghans.

[Skittles]

7. the same assholes who screamed about Elian

don't give a damn about Haitians. Typical.

[morningglory]

8. There is a TB epidemic in Haiti. The people who come here have

no job skills, so they go into restaurants. To me this is a big problem. Palm Beach County, in South Florida has hundreds of cases of TB each year. I would be in favor of investing a lot of money in Haiti and get the women educated, the kids fed, birth control set up for free, and get some jobs going. Yet how can we provide jobs for another country when we are grappling with unemployment here? Big problem.

[Tinoire]

10. Maybe there wouldn't be so much unemployment here

if the US would relocate the factories they imposed on Haiti back to the US. Of course they'd have to pay more than a few pennies a day but at least there would be jobs.

Just a thought...

Imagine if we made our own baseballs & clothes!

See, they don't want the US factories there. They want the US out of their hair.

Seems to me relocating the NAFTA plants back to the US would be a win/win for everyone.

[Muddleoftheroad]

11. A lot of money

Should we "invest" a lot of money in every depressed nation? Where would we get this money?