By Elcobbola – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11136558
On Wednesdays we study the Constitution. Usually. But I’ve gotten a bit behind because I’ve spent the last two weeks on Mt. Rainier and at a music festival. Days spent in a national park reminded me that the federal government can be a force for good when the people demand it. Days spent celebrating life through music reminded me that sometimes art speaks more loudly than scholarship. So I’m skipping the clauses today in favor of a poem.
Like the Constitution, everyone in America thinks they know Emma Lazarus’ poem, The New Colossus, but few of us have ever read the whole thing. And even fewer, it seems, understand and support it’s message.
Poetry doesn’t hold the weight of law in this country, and this poem in no way accurately describes our country the way it is. But it’s about the country we should be.
