The word of the day1 for February 15, 2007 is “expunge” — transitive verb 1 : to strike out, obliterate, or mark for deletion. 2 : to efface completely : DESTROY. 3 : to eliminate (as a memory) from one's consciousness.
I’ve been reading way too many Georgette Heyer novels lately. Many of her characters live “on tick,” meaning credit. When they can’t or won’t pay up, their creditors threaten to have them sent to “sponging houses.” For those of you who do not read Regency romance novels or Charles Dickens, these are a sort of privatized, low security prison. The United States’ revolution was conducted by landowners and artisans, but was carried out by former denizens of sponging houses and other petty criminals who were transported for their crimes. One of my high school teachers once told me that the first of his ancestors to reach American shores had changed his name because he was transported as either a political agitator or a horse thief. My teacher strongly suspected the latter.
Our immigration policies since the Constitution was finally agreed upon have not improved much. Indeed, the Emma Lazarus “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” never really settled into our collective conscience. Maybe we need to review the histories of our early immigrants a bit more closely as we struggle with securing our borders.
The quote2 for today is from Emma Lazarus (1849–1887), “ The New Colossus” (1886).:
“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-tossed, to me;
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
;^) Jan
1 The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or TheAmerican Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition and is used by permission.
2 The quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or The Quotation Pages and is used by permission.
P.S.: Comments and word requests are welcome.
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