Give Me Your Tired...

The New Colossus

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!"

Earlier this summer our government pledged to take in some ten thousand refugees seeking refuge from the dumpster fire formerly known as Syria.  Only ten thousand huh?  Pretty weak when you consider that some 4 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries and Europe to escape the civil war there.  But hey its a start right?  Maybe we can work up to twenty thousand if you give us a little time.  According to CNN so far this year we have "welcomed" 1,199  refugees from Syria. Oh and that ten thousand number that's been thrown around well it will be allocated out of the yearly quota of seventy five thousand admissions slated for the year instead of being added to that total.  So basically we aren't doing shit!

Well now following the ghastly ISIS-linked attacks on Paris this past weekend governors, house and senate members, and wanna-be politicians all over the country have been jumping up and down on their soap boxes to denounce the planned resettlement.  Its seems there may have been a Syrian refugee involved in the attacks in France.  Maybe.  www.washingtonpost.com/news/were-syrian-refugees-involved-in-the-paris-attacks-what-we-know-and-dont-know/

(An aside:  Wasn't it just a few years ago that we all decided to hate France because they wouldn't support the war in Iraq? Bet you aren't calling them freedom fries anymore!  Oh and how did that Iraq thing work out anyway?)

Hold on a second guys and gals.  Aren't we a nation of immigrants already?  How many of us can say we are truly from here?  Do we really think taking in ten thousand men, women and children from a war torn hell is going to open the door to ISIS?  Or could we just possibly be using this as an opportunity for political gain?   Bobby Jindal aren't you the child of immigrants yourself?  We welcomed your mom and dad to this country from Punjab, India so that you could have a better life. Have the words of Emma Lazaras inscribed on the Statue of Liberty ceased to mean anything?

(Another aside: I am over these ISIS guys!!  My bleeding heart peacenik instincts have been violated.  I believe there is a list of reasons to throw haymakers, for instance if someone assaults your lady.  Well ISIS you're on the top of the list!)

Take a look at the blood flowing through my very long veins.  On my Dad's side of the family I am a first generation American with Irish and English roots, my grandparents having fled war torn Europe in the 1940s for South America, eventually landing in Connecticut in the 1960s. My Dad did not come to the US until the late 1970s.  My Mom's Mom comes from a long line of Quakers who were lead to the new world by William Penn and who founded a colony were they could live free of religious persecution.  One of my Grandfather's fore-bearers sailed under Lady Liberty's torch and was processed for immigration at Ellis Island. I am a mutt just like the rest of you.  I was lucky enough to have my elders make that hard transition to America so I could have a great life here.  How many Syrian kids are going to have opportunity?

Stop reading my blather and take some time with this piece by Nicholas Schmidle that appeared in the New Yorker last month. newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/ten-borders  This story will make Harriet Tubman roll over in her grave.

I believe that sanity will prevail in this national dialog because we all have immigrant hearts.  Our routes into this nation are as long and as varied as the roots of a tree.  How about we welcome fifty thousand next year? It's still a drop in the bucket but what a great sucker punch in the gut that would be to ISIS, and to our collective fear that is so present this week,  I am proud that my governor openly welcomes refugees to our state. 

 My basement is open and the welcome mat is in place.  "I lift my lamp beside the golden (mine's wooden) door"