Martin O'Malley

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!”

These words welcomed millions. By our alchemy this “wretched refuse” helped spawn the Greatest Generation and powered the engine of the 20th century. The mantle of that legacy now falls to us. Syria’s huddled masses yearn not to breathe free—a luxury in war—but to breathe at all. Do the words with which we caption our defining monument not include these people? . . .

And why do I mention Martin O’Malley? Because, according to The Guardian, of the 4,000 (actually only 22) Republican and Democratic candidates for president who were asked, only O’Malley said unambiguously that the United States should make room for more people from Syria. . .

Martin O’Malley is right, and so is Ramy Arnaout. If the United States wants to “do something” about a humanitarian disaster, it can best help them, and help itself, by welcoming more of them here.