Annie’s Mailbox: Fitting words for Fourth of July

Dear Readers: Happy Fourth of July! We hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend with friends and family, watching fireworks and firing up the grill. Here’s something that was sent to our mailbox a while back, and we saved it for today:

Dear Annie: Several years ago, you printed the words written on the base of the Statue of Liberty. A lot of people seem to have forgotten they exist and what they mean. My parents were immigrants, and because they came to the U.S., their children had the opportunity and motivation to become doctors, lawyers and artists who pay taxes and contribute to American society. Could you please print those inspiring words again? – Tolerant in Chicago

Dear Tolerant: Thank you for asking. Here they are, and on the most appropriate occasion we could think of:

The New Colossus

by Emma Lazarus

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!”