Image via WikipediaThis weekend is a fantastic opportunity to search for free the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.com, who write:
"FREE ACCESS WEEKENDYou have to register your name and email -- for free -- but that is nothing compared to the records that are open for your perusal -- at no cost to you.
Search the world’s largest online collection of U.S. immigration records FREE through Sept. 6th."
My family emigrated to the USA in 1950 and through this free weekend I am finding out how we got to New York City. We give thanks to the green lady:
Image of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Liberty Island via Wikipedia Do you know the famous "Statue of Liberty" poem written by Emma Lazarus and inscribed on the base of the statue? Read the story at StatueofLiberty.net. Here is that famous poem, recalling the Colossus of Rhodes in ancient days:
Image via WikipediaThe New Colossus
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!"
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!"
-- Emma Lazarus, 1883
America is a nation of immigrants and yet it is a nation of outcasts that has become the world's strongest power -- as opposed to those who remained in their entrenched, outdated or antiquated countries and cultures.
We know. We now live in Europe and appreciate the blessings of European life, but the philosophy that is required in order to preval in the modern world is still the basic philosophy of the United States of America.
There is a lesson there for the enemies of the USA and its a clear one.
As history has proven time and again, those who oppose America always lose, one way or the other, and there is good reason for this, because America -- in spite of the many weaknesses that we ourselves are sometimes too quick to recognize and criticize -- nevertheless in its very origins and in the resulting philosophy of State and mankind, represents the future of humanity.
America offers the world a better way for everyone. Other countries offer a better way FOR THEM. God does not reward such selfishness.
America represents the bulk of mankind seeking to create a better life for themselves, for their families and their communities. That path is not always easy, nor are the means chosen to take that path always the right ones. But -- the American intention is never world domination -- rather, it is world liberation from tyrants of every description.
America seeks to create a better world than what has previously existed.
Many other countries in the world represent their past, lost in ancient doctrines and beliefs and histories, seeking to improve life only for a chosen few.
Such selfish philosophies can never win. They have no chance in the long term.
