Preface - This is about America’s past, its national pastime, and its future.
“Do you want to see Hank Greenberg’s bat? How about a Sandy Koufax autographed baseball?”
We’re talking about Hank Greenberg, the legendary Tiger slugger who led the way in Detroit’s capture of the American League championship in 1940. Sandy Koufax, is the venerated three time Cy Young Award winning Dodger southpaw, and another legend in his own time.
Not really expecting to view, no less hold, holy grail level baseball memorabilia in the place we envisioned holding only stacks of books and documents, we responded, … “Sure”. That was “Sure” albeit with the slight uncertainty of a defense mechanism mounted to avoid major disappointment. We didn’t think the items would actually appear. But moments later there they were. Was it all a dream?
Not at all, but then where were we?
Answer: on NYC’s lower west side on a private tour of the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), the oldest cultural archive in the US. The institution houses millions of documents and tens of thousands of books, photographs, art, and artifacts all reflecting the history of the Jewish presence in America since colonial times. It’s a mind-boggling collection.
The Society considers what it has amassed to be no less than the future of the American Jewish past.
‘The future of the past’ - That mission statement gave me pause to reflect. Recalling William Faulkner’s haunting quote, “the past is not dead, it’s not even past”, AJHS’ vision of itself serving as custodian of a living past is a lot to chew on.
No worries, I decided to take a bite and chomp on it. But for now, back to baseball.
Growing up as members of the Brooklyn faithful who loved its borough’s Dodgers, my wife and I were blown away with what we held in our hands. The archive housed even more Koufax and Dodger baseball stuff to savor. But the elation quickly paled in comparison to what happened next. Our guide brought out and let us turn the pages of another AJHS gem, the original journal in which Emma Lazarus entered her most famous sonnet. That’s the Emma Lazarus who wrote,
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to be free"
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| The New Colossus |
There it was, in pen and ink, in her own hand, The New Colossus, her composition written to raise money for construction of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.
Emma Lazarus' words always inspired Americans to see their country as one welcoming the stranger. The poem was so intertwined with Lady Liberty's symbolism, it was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level. After all, unless you're Native American, we were all strangers arriving here at one time.
Sadly, that lofty vision who we are is under attack. Right out of an Orwellian playbook, Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration recently suggested Lazarus' poem should be changed in order to restrict entry to only those among the tired and poor "who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge". He actually said that! I'm confident Cuccinelli, always sporting his stars and stripes lapel pin, holds these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal. Today, I'm also confident he understands that tenet to mean - but some men are created more equal than others.
Cuccinelli wants to re-write history to reshape the future. This step would extinguish Lady Liberty's flame leaving her in a fog, a mere shadow of who she was and what she represented. The wordsmithery would put a smile on Big Brother's usually dour face. Cuccinelli wants a New, New Colossus.
For everyone descended from families originating on distant shores, that re-write is no less than a shot across the bow, a Code Red. We can't allow it. It won't be easy, but if there's a will, there's a way. Let's find our own way to find that way.
This is about America’s past ….. and its future.
*****************************************************************************
Sadly, that lofty vision who we are is under attack. Right out of an Orwellian playbook, Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration recently suggested Lazarus' poem should be changed in order to restrict entry to only those among the tired and poor "who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge". He actually said that! I'm confident Cuccinelli, always sporting his stars and stripes lapel pin, holds these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal. Today, I'm also confident he understands that tenet to mean - but some men are created more equal than others.
So much for the purity of Emma Lazarus' view of Lady Liberty's welcoming light at the entrance to New York harbor ....
A Mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning .....
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome
Cuccinelli wants to re-write history to reshape the future. This step would extinguish Lady Liberty's flame leaving her in a fog, a mere shadow of who she was and what she represented. The wordsmithery would put a smile on Big Brother's usually dour face. Cuccinelli wants a New, New Colossus.
For everyone descended from families originating on distant shores, that re-write is no less than a shot across the bow, a Code Red. We can't allow it. It won't be easy, but if there's a will, there's a way. Let's find our own way to find that way.
This is about America’s past ….. and its future.
*****************************************************************************
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images © David Greenfield
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