The Child Colossus: A Poem After “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus on our Statue of Liberty

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

Nor our Statue of Liberty New Colossus,

They, in fluidity with an outstretched arm

Yearning to be me, and their Native name

Seeing All Sides at Once. From their left hand

Comes what is right as their eyes survey

The mall to our national monuments.

“Keep modern science, the biblical genders”, they cry,

With pursed lips breathing. Connect me to all children

Under undue distress all ‘round the world,

Shaping the future of our warring lands.

Save these, the scapegoats sacrificed to a false god

And huddle them in peace and prosperity.

It is said that poems are usually best read or heard without any initial commentary and, so, this column begins with a poem. Actually, if you heard my video from yesterday, this poem was spoken during the presentation.

I am not a poet by any stretch of the imagination, and Psychiatric Times has had its own special resident poet—Richard Berlin, MD—but I was searching for a new way to convey my concern about child mental health around the world. Perhaps as a reflection of concern for the future, more and more individuals around the world are declining to even have children. What could be better, I thought, than basing such a poem on Lady Liberty, the Mother of Exiles in the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus? Moreover, the arts can convey things in a unique way.

Of greatest risk seems to be trans children, at least in the United States. Hence my use of the pronouns in current usage for such gender identities. Certainly, around the world and in history, those with transgender identities have been valued for their unique perspective, reflected in the name in the poem: “Seeing All Sides at Once.” Various laws and policies are being enacted to prevent their appropriate medical and psychiatric care during childhood and adolescence as they prepare for further physical gender transition. Their obstacles to self-actualization will be our losses, too.

Given that the Statue of Liberty is female, and the Lazarus poem starts with a male Colossus from history, the Greek sun god in Rhodes, destroyed by an earthquake, I wondered if we needed a child colossus, their imagined child, perhaps to be placed on land this time. That would be our Capitol Building, the same Capitol Building that was invaded on January 6, 2021. Would a Child Colossus we can all rally around provide any pause and prevention for a future insurrection?

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.