On the Subject of Wretched Refuse
Created | Updated Feb 4, 2018
On the Subject of Wretched Refuse
There is absolutely nothing new under the sun. The cartoon above showed up in a Newark, New Jersey newspaper in 1913. The message? 'We don't want any immigrants from those inferior countries.' Of course, the 'inferior' countries were in Europe back then. Once upon a time, nobody even wanted Norwegians.
We speak more circumspectly than our political leaders, who wouldn't get past the h2g2 filther. But we'd like to point out that referring to immigrants as 'refuse' and picturing them in a rubbish bin was pretty rude even then. And pretty telling…
What was it Emma Lazarus wrote in that poem in 1880? The one that got put on a bronze plaque in 1903 and attached to the base of the Statue of Liberty? Oh, yeah…
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!
It's a continuing struggle between humanity's best and worst instincts. As I said, there's absolutely nothing new under the sun.
