As you prepare for the 4th of July celebration, there is much to do get ready. There are preparations like meals, fireworks, and parades. Additionally, it is a time to remember the signing of the Declaration of Independence some 243 years ago. However, this July 4th will be different.

A father and daughter

You have seen this photo many times. It is a picture of Martinez Ramirez and his two year old daughter, Valeria. Martinez, his wife, and Valeria had traveled more than a thousand miles from El Salvador to the United States seeking asylum. When they got to the Puerta Mexico International Bridge, which links Brownsville, TX with Matamoros, Mexico, they found it closed. They were told to come back on Monday. Martinez decided to wade across the Rio Grande instead of waiting for the long lines on Monday to cross the bridge. However, the father and daughter were pulled under by the river and drowned. On Monday, there were found a couple hundred yards from the bridge on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. They wanted to come to America to find freedom from the tyranny in El Salvador and to find better and safer life for his family.

Nearly a century and a half ago in 1883, Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet, The New Colossus, which was about the Statue of Liberty. She compared The Colossus of Rhodes statue, which was one the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, with the Statue of Liberty.

The New Colossus

Interestingly, the comparison was between a warrior and a woman. The Colossus of Rhodes depicted a conquering warrior, and the Statue of Liberty was the mother for exiles. Listen to what the statue said,

Donald the Dumb, our fake president, also told us about immigration, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? ... We should have more people from places like Norway.” That racist nonsense came from our fake president.

Tomorrow will be the 4th of July. It is a time for celebrating, but, more importantly, it is a time for thinking. America started as a country of immigrants, and they weren’t all white like Norwegians. Trump’s wife and her family were also immigrants, and they weren’t from Norway. I wonder what the attraction those immigrants had to Trump?

Those who came before us have left us their legacy. The question is what are we going to do with it? Are we going to ban those who don’t look like us, don’t worship like us, ethnically aren’t the same as us, or talk like us? On the 4th of July and for as long as America is around, we need to remember the words of The New Colossus. Lazarus’ sonnet is on a bronze plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Each of us needs to remember that we all are immigrants from all over the world who came to these shores for freedom. None of them thought that America would have such an openly racist president as Donald the Dumb. Martinez tried to come to America with his wife and daughter.

His wife, Valerie, and Martinez

However, the Martinez Ramirez family wasn’t racially good enough for Trump. And it isn’t just people from Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean islands who aren’t. Trump wants to ban Muslims from entering America. Actually, he wants to decide who the people will be that will make America great again. Yo, Donald, you won’t be one of them.

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