"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!" Is this no longer what we stand for? Was it ever? I get wanting to keep our country safe - truly, I do - but this isn't the way. Condemning the many based on the actions of the few is illogical. And hating a person because of their religion, appearance, or place of birth is beneath us. Look at those around you. Look at yourself. We are a nation of immigrants. And yet, we conveniently forget this when someone new appears. Suddenly, they're the oddity, the alien, the Other. We whisper "immigrant" like it's a dirty word. As if immigrants aren't what built this country. Humanity cannot thrive when we pit people against each other, when we stand in our privilege and declare, "Me first!" We only succeed when we set aside our preconceptions and work together. In the end, we're all human. Stuck together on a big rock, floating through the vastness of space. In the face of that, what does it matter if someone has a different religion than you?
