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Article: Among the Huddled Masses at the Golden Door
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 8, 2009
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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There is no doubt that many immigrants to the United States were
driven by economic imperatives, as Roberto Suro noted in his July 5
Outlook commentary about the Statue of Liberty. But that fact did
not justify the conclusion reflected in the headline "She Was Never
About Those Huddled Masses."
I was one of those "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" as I
stood on the deck of the ship Nieuw Amsterdam on the morning of Dec.
15, 1938.
Also standing on the deck were hundreds of other passengers who
were fleeing the Nazis, as I was. We gazed at the Statue of Liberty
as our ship brought us to the golden door. Admittedly, the door was
no longer wide open, but it had not been "slammed shut" in ...