Very patriotic! And cause for introspection. Is it a door? To where? Are you going in, or out? An elevator? If so, is it going up, or down?

This must be a "BYOI" (bring your own interpretation) piece.

So who is the person? Possibly immigrant looking to enter? It looks to me like he's a bit uneasy as if he peeking around the edge of the door to see if it is safe to enter.

And what nationality - the mustache sort of implies from the south of the border, but is more subtle than a sombrero would be.

Observe the door frame and header - the style speaks of strength, power and of government and law.

But what does the washed out color mean? That our nation is no longer as strong as it once was?

And there doesn't appear to be a door, just an open frame - symbolic of how the US is open to immigration?

So is this piece intended to force thought about immigration, who we allow in, who we exclude and under what rules?

I'll leave the rest of the posters to finish.

HEY DR BOB

You're interpretations are spot on. I like submitting my editorial-esque illustrations so that I may read varying opinions about a given subject matter. I leave it somewhat open-ended on purpose.

Now, had this been accompanied with an article, the illustration would have supported the writer's broad scope of immigration concerns.

if you look relly hard though the door theres a pony

DEVON:

You made me think about the joke about the eternal pessimist & the eternal optimist. THANK YOU. I needed a little bit of cheering up. Here's the joke, but I expect you've already heard it.

There were two young brothers close to the same age. Their parents were worried, as the boys had developed extreme opposite personalities; one was a complete pessimist, the other a total optimist. Their parents took them to a specialist to see if anything could be done to moderate their worldviews back to "normal."

The doctor devised a novel treatment he was certain would make both boys more realistic.

He took the little pessimist to a room filled with brand-new toys, a bicycle, playground equipment, & all kinds of cakes, cookies, pastry, & candies...

...and then he took the little optimist to a room piled halfway to the ceiling with horse manure...

...& he left them in their respective rooms for the day.

At the end of the day, he went to retrieve the little pessimist, & found him sitting in the middle of the floor sobbing, & nothing in the room had been touched. When the doctor inquired as to why, the little boy responded, "Well, at first I thought about playing with the toys, but I was afraid I would break something. Then I thought I might play on the slide or the monkey bars--or maybe even ride the bike--but I was afraid I would fall & get hurt. Then I got hungry & thought about eating something, but with all of those sweets, I was afraid I would get a tummy ache. So--I just sat here & waited, & you were gone so long, I got scared."

The doctor was stunned--but he was certain that he would fare better with the other boy.

Upon opening the door to the other room, he found that more than half of the manure had been piled to the ceiling at one end of the room, the second little boy seemed to be filled with complete & utter joy, & he was digging away frantically at the remaining manure. When the incredulous doctor asked him what he was doing, the little boy cheerily piped up, "I figured with all of this poop in here, there just HAD to be a pony in here somewhere!"

JOHN:

The first thing that popped in my head (considering that BHO is POTUS & Dems control the Senate) was the inscription over the gate in Dante's Inferno.

There's a bit from one of the earlier "Dukes of Hazzard" shows regarding that sign I've never been able to forget. LSS, there's a needlepoint sampler on the wall of the jail that reads, "All hope abandoned ye who enter here." Uncle Jesse reads the line out loud & says, "That's from Dante, ain't it?" Roscoe is highly offended, & fires back, "That's from my momma!!!"

The idea of a little old church lady stitching that cracks me up. Being a post-boomer boomer-generation baby, as a kid I was around a lot of little old blue-hairs--& 1 or 2 of them were brimming with enough piety, ill-humor, & the judgment of the Lord that I wouldn't have any problem imagining them doing just that).

P.S. I hope Devon is right, but I've been paying careful attention to what has been coming out of Washington for more than two decades (& I've read as much history as I could). I've yet to find the pony. There are signs of a trail that ends in 1829, with a little spoor here & there ending in 1989. The pile from the last decade has to be from some kind of leviathan, & it seems to have gone rabid in 2009.

HEY DEVON

Pony? If you say so. I got nothin'.

Hey T
Neat joke. There's a lesson in the somewhere.

I love the immigration themes, but the first thing I saw was an honest, tax paying, law abiding American cautiously looking through the doorway for a glimmer of hope in the coming year. The faded colors could represent our faded hopes and dreams.

after looking at it for a while i saw he looked like a pedofile and we have 25% of the worlds prsion population so mabey he could be walking into or out of a pison bease the inside is bleak and he looks like a pedofile. yah thats my statement be happy

T -

"All hope abandoned ye who enter here" would definitely apply to my office wing at work considering the quarterly layoffs and offshoring, and increased workload for the survivors. Now a firey hell-like graphic with the quote and a Devil dressed in a business suit would be perfect. I'll have to see what I can put together, hehehe.

And about pessimists and optimists...

A pessimist sees the inside of a tunnel.

A optimist sees a the inside of the tunnel and a light at the end.

A realist sees the inside of a tunnel, the light at the end of the tunnel and the next tunnel.

And the guy who saw the light and found it was an oncoming train, well, his name was Murphy.