Given the holiday in the US, it seems like a good time to post a couple of Bald Eagle photos.
For related reasons, this morning I also re-read the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, written as part of the fundraising for the construction of the Statue of Liberty, and viewable on a plaque in the Statue’s pedestal. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” is the most famous part, but the whole thing is good:
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!”
