Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses…
and we will feed them
we will clothe them
house them
pay them not to work
provide for their healthcare
care for their children
and tell them what to eat
and indoctrinate them in free schools
give them phones
and pay their utilities
subsidize their debt
pretend to provide for them in retirement
and promise them more
always more
all the while denying them the chance
to ever be more than
tired, poor, huddled masses
with no dreams
who have forgotten
what it is to breath free
Awakened Words 
Feels more like stark realism to me. With a trace of optimism.
By the way, are you going to submit this to the New Yorker? 🙂
🙂
When “Give me your tired etc…” was first written, it really worked. Hence the success of the American Dream”
Do the poor and the homeless really get healthcare in America?
Agreed Viv. At that time the ‘land of opportunity’ was real and readily achievable if you were willing to work for it. And it is still possible, but much harder with the miasma of government regulation and over taxation of business. And there are less willing to do the work required.
And yes, healthcare of a sorts has been available for a long time, especially for the young and the old. There is medicaid for poor children and all elderly get medicare. It is far from perfect but it was already there, not nearly the mess it was made out to be, and the new system is much more of a financial hardship. It has also been illegal for a long time for a hospital to refuse care due to an inability to pay. Routine care is somewhat harder to come by for an adult without insurance, but still possible. There is a government program for everything…
Thank you for that elucidation, Mark.