Introduction

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!”

This is a poem by Emma Lazarus, a poet raising money for the construction of the base of the statue of liberty. It talks about her ideals for America, this nation not of the elite, but a nation of foreigners, rejects, and those who desire something better for their lives. The dreamers. In her poem, she talked about how the statue stands by, welcoming those people to a life of freedom from whatever was binding or oppressing them in their previous countries. They are Americans now. They are beyond all that.

The Statue of Liberty, incidentally, has a twin in France. The sculpture was designed by a French sculptor named Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi to celebrate both the French and American revolutions. The metal framework was built by another foreigner, Gustave Eiffel, most famous for the Eiffel tower in France. Functionally, the Statue of Liberty is a foreigner.

The New Colossus Initiative is a quiet organization of one person that is hoping and striving that someday, somehow, the ideals of the New Colossus will become a reality, that America will become a country for everyone, and that the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of other's teeming shores, the homeless, the tempest tossed, can set foot in America. While there aren't many golden doors, easier access to immigration would be ideal.