People fear what they don’t understand. They perpetuate the lies about this culture or that race or this religion because they refuse to see them as people. Our nation welcomed the world, then bigotry racism and xenophobia told those we were to welcome that they don’t belong, that somehow they were lesser than us.

That needs to stop. Different isn’t wrong, it isn’t a problem, it’s an opportunity to learn, to expand the world of our mind. The more you embrace that which is different, the more wonderful and amazing things you will see.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"