On Lady Liberty given to us by the French, lest we forget, that has met countless millions of immigrants coming to our Land seeking refuge, a new chance and life and freedom of worship. Emma Lazarus is inscribed on this Statue of Liberty:
"Inscription on the Statue of Liberty"
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
In these terrible, deadly, ever-shocking days unfolding on global networks and social media, the litmus test of and for each of us reading this resides in the 2015 application of those infamous welcoming words. Within a 99.9% percentile of those reading this came here from another location for an array of reasons but freedom was the overarching thrust of the voyage and the worth of the challenge to leave loved ones, homes, work, etc.
As I began to see a few weeks ago posts to FB decrying acceptance of the poor and pitiful migration of people scared to death and many dying trying to escape the horrors of their hell in their homeland, I began to feel conflicted deeply.
Then with the Paris attacks, the xenophobic nature of Man began to rear its ugly head around the world but not stronger than right here in America. We have all read or heard of the internment camps for the Japanese after December 7, 1941. We can all, as well, understand the fear our grandparents felt in trying to grasp the what and why Japan did such a dastardly deed. History has always shown us the Japanese felt they were driven to take such drastic actions due to America shutting off its raw material supplies. I am not justifying the whys or wherefores of what happened but history has recorded that as a dark time in American history with the treatment of the Japanese which were American citizens.
This with the Japanese is but one of many such xenophobic reactions to calamities. The Syrian refugee crisis looms in the sunlight and TV light of our social media world so it more real and in HD for we in 2015 than it was in the black-and-white media world of 1941. Seeing photos on FB of these poor wretches of people selling their lives to Turkish and Greeks to get away from the morass of their lives next to pits of rattlesnakes crawling on each other are, for me, reprehensible. While reprehensible that one of the Paris bombers allegedly came into Europe as one of the refugees angers, sickens and causes many of us to want to lash out in some caustic way. But let me say again:
"Inscription on the Statue of Liberty"
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.
I am deeply, deeply conflicted on the actions of now roughly thirty American states denying entry of these "huddled masses yearning to breathe free .." for none of us can know the statistics of the level of potential threat. To give it another slant, the Mafia has been granted almost elite star status with movies when realizing these were Italian and Irish street gangsters and thugs making their way to America to Americanize their ill gotten gains and means to those gains via murder and mayhem, right? So do you see my point and parallel?
In our local Canton, OH newspaper today, a great writer, Charita Goshay, has posted a challenging piece on this very issue in American life in 2015. That which we have held valid and valued is now challenged on every hand in America and in Europe. Legitimizing and celebrating the many things the Bible clearly states to be wrong in God's Eyes is example of the transformation of America as it becomes more god-less as has Europe since World War II.
I worked for an executive at Goodyear that loved to state when some were celebrating attainment of a target and wanting praise, he would quietly and succinctly state .."one robin doeth not a Spring make!" I believe one terrorist is that robin in this ocean of people that direly need to be absorbed into the less barbaric global village. If not I believe the level of brutality and killing will be enhanced via technology of explosives and weaponry obviously readily available on world black markets.
Many will disagree with my sentiment in my writing this morning and please know, that is perfectly within your right for I understand fully the innate longing to protect and build a wall. But our global village is burning around us. I am convinced the Obama Administration has heavily prompted and fueled much of this disdain and hatred both foreign and domestic we are seeing come to fruition as the sunlight of hatred grows hotter around the world.
I go back to Lady Liberty's telling words for my guidance as I navigate this deep sense of confliction I myself am feeling on this mass of people seeking life ... is that really too much to ask?
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