The Statue of Liberty meets Presidents Day

The author of "The New Colossus," the poem affixed to the Statue of Liberty that includes those well known words "Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," would have had a spirited conversation with most US Presidents.

Emma Lazarus' life's work was dedicated to inspiring public policy that provided relief to those cruelly harmed by both foreign and domestic nativist public policy.

Given that 10 of the first 12 Presidents were themselves slaveowners, and that one could find more than a speck of race, class, and foreigner discrimination in the careers of every president, it's a matter of interest on Presidents Day to consider which presidents would, were they living today, come nearest to exemplary rapport with the aura of the Statue of Liberty.

But whoa! Wait! Just what is the aura of the Statue of Liberty? You're warmly invited to join a discussion of just that question. The Commons SF is hosting an online screening of twenty-five minutes of scholarly review of the statue and of the poem, "The New Colossus," to be followed by 30 minutes of moderated but no-panel discussion by all those in attendance.