She must be weeping. We should all weep.
Certainly racism and ethnocentrism have abounded here since the first immigrants arrived, since the genocide of the native people began, and since before the land became the United States of anywhere.
Still, many millions of the tired and the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free have found refuge here. Countless homeless men, women, and children, struggling to escape persecution and death, to live in peace, to work, and to become Americans have leapt towards her torch,
But now, and not for the first time, the Lady’s welcoming arms and her beacon of hope are mocked by the power brokers, the fear promoters,the hate mongers, the racists and bigots, and all the people they are able to frighten and manipulate.
You’ve heard them. I don’t want or need to give their words space here, those hawkish, mawkish voices crying out shrilly, urging the caring, the compassionate, the humane to deny asylum to terrified, oppressed, and abused Syrian refugees, even the infants.
There are better voices, more sane voices, more principled voices that we would all do well to heed lest perdition overtake us as our humanity succumbs to the machinations of countrymen who benefit from war.
Elizabeth Warren’s beautiful statement on Syria
Dear Governor Snyder: Syrian Refugees Are Welcome in My Home
British Muslims send message to ISIS and the world—and it’s spot on
Charlie Baker’s Wrong-Headed Reasoning About Syrian Refugees
How to tell the difference between ISIS and Muslims
I can understand the fear, truly. There are people I love who have become convinced that if we accept refugees into our country, their community could be the next Paris, tomorrow could be the next 9/11. These are scary times and the corporate media wallow in their ability to incite terror, promote moral disengagement, and push our people into the arms of a military-industrial complex that seeks perpetual war to satisfy its greed.
Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology