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Country Needs More Compassion For Others

To The Reader’s Forum:

“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 the last verse of the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. “Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” These are words of hope, words of encouragement, words that speak to the value system of America. These words lift us up to a higher calling other than ourselves. These are the words that make America great because history has proven them to be true.

These words are not fake news; they represent who we are as a nation. If we were to forget these words and their meaning we would be tearing apart the very soul of America. And yet, here we are, contemplating the concept that we have no lamp beside the golden door.

Our language today is that of blaming others for what we know we are responsible for. It is a language reserved for kindergarten recess time. “He did it.” “No, she did it.” “You caused the shut down of the government!” “No, you did!” No, we all did! We, as a society have exchanged the Golden Rule of “Do unto others, as we would have other do unto us”, for a rule of selfish conceit. Our current language is all about me, myself, and I. “I don’t want immigrants, I am fearful of people I don’t know. I don’t want to care for people who are poor because I don’t have what I want.”

Now, contrast our current language with the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Do you value the poem and believe it represents America? Or do you value our current language of division, hate, and blaming? Which words and actions lift us up and which words and actions place us in the gutter?

America has lost its values and will never be great again as long as we focus on ourselves. To be a great country we need a value system of compassion, not one of division. If we don’t forgive the sins of the illegal immigrants, God will not forgive us! We say this every time we speak the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our sins AS we forgive those who sin against us!” We have lost our way and will be considered illegal immigrants of heaven unless we change our ways.

Edward Vos

Jamestown

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