Lady Liberty invited the tired,
the poor and the huddled masses to stay.
In New York she used to give them
new English names to replace what had aged,
become unpronounceable, unspellable,
when giving fresh starts to old trades and habits.
Whatever the later public talk of 'the melting pot',
what did not happen, any more than that talk was understood,
was that each ethnic group truly blended with any other;
each new national identity renewed itself through it's old identity
in it's new suburb, via it's natural trade.
Until that area assumed the pre-Liberty identity.
Even in the land of the free, good neighbours
need the strongest of fences to be good to each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment