Give Me Your Rich White Guys

I designed this sticker in March of 2005 around the time of the large immigrant rights marches in Los Angeles and other cities. About the same time, Congress was debating several new pieces of proposed immigrant legislation. These ranged from building extensive new fences along parts of the U.S. Mexican border, to implementing new guest-worker programs.

This sticker twists a famous line from a poem that appears on the base of the Statue of Liberty. The poem, written by Emma Lazarus in 1883, goes like this:

The 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!"

It has taken me a long time to come up with any stickers to address the immigration issue. Probably because the issue is so difficult, and not easily reduced to a pithy bumper sticker.

One thing I am sure of is that we are a nation of immigrants. And immigrants, no matter how poor or destitute, still deserve a chance at life in this country. Our diversity is our strength. 

I think of America as a kind of life-boat floating in the sea of humanity. In a world of so much poverty and misery, we have a duty to help as many people as we can. Of course, we can't help everyone, or the life-boat will sink. 

I don't have all the answers, but I know a closed border is not the answer. We need to continue welcoming many of our brothers and sisters from around the world. The question is how many can we realistically accommodate? 

Dan R. Frazier

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