We took a family vacation this past weekend to New York City, and something struck me like a thunderbolt. We were on a boat tour around the Manhattan seeing all the sites: the Empire State Building, the new World Trade Center buildings, and of course, among other things, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. These are icons of American cultural and political history. They also strike me as great representations of the conflicting ideals of Justice and Mercy.
Mercy sounds a lot like this:
“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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
– from Emma Lazarus’ poem New Colossus, written for a fundraiser auction to raise money for the construction of the pedestal where the statue now rests.
Of course, the tired, poor, huddled masses still have to be dealt with when they arrive on your shore.
Ellis Island opened in 1892 and was the first federal immigration station in the United States – the government’s mechanism of enforcing rule of law upon all those who sought entry to the country.
Some were allowed to enter. Others were sent back.
Here we are, over 100 years later, and the questions about immigration are still the same. Some are allowed to enter. Others are sent back. The context is different, but it’s still the same basic question.
What is interesting to me, and what struck me as we circled these iconic fixtures of Americana, was that we as a nation are exponentially more inspired by the Statue of Liberty than we are Ellis Island. Yet you’d never know it to hear the way we talk about immigration in our country. The Statue of Liberty is part of our ideology, our national soul. Even the most cynical American would have to confess at being at least somewhat awestruck at the sight of the Statue of Liberty. But we are increasingly unsure what to do with the tired, poor, huddled masses eager for opportunity in America. Is she a symbol of our past or our future?
There is a natural tension between Justice and Mercy. In my opinion, that tension is out of balance in our society today. Why is it that when it comes to discussions about immigration in America, our thoughts turn so quickly to Justice and are so slow to Mercy? It is often said that America is a nation of immigrants. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that America is a nation of immigrants whose children then must decide what to do with the next generation of immigrants.
What shall it be – Justice or Mercy?