"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!"
- Part of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty

It has long been the ideal of the United States that we as a country welcomed those from outside our shores, providing opportunity for all who came to seek it. This ideal image has always flown in the face of the reality, that each wave of immigrants was treated with suspicion and scorn, from the Irish to the Russians to the Mexicans. We as a country are not really the kind "open door" types.

Consider how we treat our own: Those that succeed in this country are treated as stars, with obscene paychecks and generous tax breaks. What about those that have fallen through the cracks? New York's mayor Bloomberg has a solution - Ship them to GA:

Nice... The program requires a family member to take them in, which means that at least temporarily, the displaced homeless will have a place to stay. But realistically - how long will a family member keep them? How long could you and your family live with another sibling? It's only a matter of time before they become homeless again, but now they're another city's "problem".

So goes NY, so goes the rest of the country. The status of the detainees in Gitmo has been an ongoing problem, with politicians making political hay from the impending closure of the prison. For some reason people here in the U.S. think everyone there MUST be guilty, and that our prison system is no match for their wiles. Meanwhile, Ireland has stepped up, and has stated they will take two of the detainees and allow them to live there:

How simple is that? Ireland seems to understand who is and who isn't dangerous. What's wrong with us? Besides those in Gitmo, there seems to be a great mistrust for anyone Arabic. If you've flown recently, you can see it in the eyes of passengers in the gate area, waiting to board a plane, and eyeing the Arabic guy in the robes with suspicion and fear.

And yet - all of the terrorism we've seen in the U.S. since 9/11 has been of the home-grown caucasian variety. Besides all of the numerous shootings, there was a recent arrest of a NC man (and others) buying weapons and planning "something" (details are still sketchy). Israel refused to allow the man entry to their country two years ago, yet he was never detained here in the U.S.

So to summarize:

• Homeless people = bad


• Foreign people with no evidence of terrorist activities = bad


• Home grown terrorists planning jihads = good

It seems to me that the "wretched refuse" in America aren't those that are coming here as immigrants...