"Give me your tired, your poor..."

"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." -Emma Lazarus. These words, inscribed on the base of the statue of liberty, were meant to inspire immigrants coming to this country for a new start away from persecution and tyranny, however I think we can all get a practically applicable lesson from them. That lesson is love. We should all be looking out towards those who are tired, those who don't have enough money to scrape up food for themselves or their families, towards those masses of people who are hurting and need a friend. If we were all to lift our lamps beside our OWN doors for these people, we could begin to change this country and this planet. One of my absolute favorite bands in the universe is Angels & Airwaves. In the song "Secret Crowds", Tom Delonge says this "If I had my own world, I'd fill it with wealth and desire, a glorioius past to admire and places with kids out walking dogs, birds, planes, the cleanest cars. If I had my own world, I'd show you the life that's inside it, the way that it glows when you find it, the way it survives with its families, its friends or its enemies. If I had my own world I'd build you an empire from here to the far lands, to spread love like violence." I have that phrase tattooed on my right arm. I love that. The whole idea of it. If love were being spread the same way violence is spread in this world full of hate, death, disease, destruction, abortion, nuclear weapons, war, and the like, then I think we'd all see an entirely different earth.