THE GOLDEN DOOR

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  37 degrees F, wind W, moderate with strong gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy, and the reflected light of a molten sun spread a path of fire across the waters of the channel at dawn.  It is a real mixture of weather, with low rain clouds scudding here and there across a blue sky, while heavy mist obscures much of Madeline Island.  I'll see what the day brings weather-wise and probably go out to the deer stand again before dark.  The barometer again predicts rain.  Hunters to the south, around the Onion and Sioux River watersheds, have been shooting some deer.
    Yesterday I didn't go out to the deer stand until an hour or so before closing time, and will do the same today.  That perhaps cuts down on my chances but I have other things to do as well, and I'm O.K. with that.  The late afternoon into early evening yesterday was extremely quiet in the woods.
    There is a recent immigration law that puts a new wrinkle on the iconic Emma Lazarus' poem that  graces the base of the Statue of Liberty:

THE NEW COLOSSUS
    by Emma Lazarus

 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

        Just be sure to bring $50,000 in investment cash to secure residency and a permanent green card.  The Golden Door now opens easier with a little baksheesh. I don't know whether to cry or puke.