Statue of Liberty Plaque

In this age of replacing statues, it’s probably time to look at the plaque on the Statue of Liberty to see if it needs to be updated. It reads:

 

“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!” – 1903

 

This plaque was accurate in 1903 and described US labor and population needs of the 1800s. We needed farmers and ranchers to settle the Louisiana Territory and the West. We needed factory workers to win the industrial revolution, We needed coal miners and lumberjacks and saw mills, We needed construction workers to build railroads, roads, factories and buildings. And all of this required labor and the work was usually dangerous. But we’re done with that.

 

We invented labor-saving equipment and better methods an no longer need the “tired, poor, wretched refuse or homeless”. Due to our policy mistakes we have more than enough of these people already.

 

We have different needs and should update the plaque to read:

 

Give me your wealthy, your capable, your best and your brightest yearning to be free from big government socialism and high taxes, Send me your self-supporting entrepreneurs and technical wizards, to relight my lamp and redesign the golden door.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader