Blog 3250 – 09.25.2024

Lady Liberty Carries A Torch For Underdogs

One of my all time favorite quotes from Mickey Spillane’s fictional New York City Private Detective, Mike Hammer, is his comment about the Statue of Liberty holding her torch high in New York harbor, “There is only one woman who can carry a torch for me.”

On a plaque beneath her feet are these words:

Poor White Trash is a term that originated with the British elite for the poor unwanted population that they were more than willing to deposit in their colonies in the New World, Australia, and around the world. And the poet Emma Lazarus in prettier words has our lovely lady saying with her torch raised, “Bring them on, all the unwashed and unwanted, for I will make a place for them, a place where they can have an opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their children.”

Underestimated, unappreciated, but of inestimable value, people of every color and make no mistake we are all of us “colored folk” for white is no less a color and nor more. I along with Mike Hammer, and Star Trek’s Captain Kirk have a special attraction to green tinted ladies especially one’s who carry torches for underdogs like me.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

Saluting Lady Liberty,

David White