In 1941 Dr. Seuss sent a message that, sadly, hasn’t lost its meaning.
November 19, 2015 by JT Eberhard
Dr. Seuss was actually a political cartoon contributor for New York’s PM Newspaper for part of his early career. This was his piece on October 1, 1941:
This was in reaction to the fact that most Americans opposed Adolph Hitler’s anti-Jew policies while also being opposed to granting safe haven to refugee Jews.
And here we are again today, over 74 years later, where people are being executed by on occupying force and need to get out of the country. Most Americans oppose ISIL in pretty much every way, yet the people who think a freshly fertilized egg is a human being for which anything and everything should be done are willing to turn their back on actual refugee children. If it were their families in Syria they’d be begging for safe haven, but they just can’t put themselves in the other people’s shoes. We’re safe, and that’s all that matters, right?
You want America to be a hero to the world. Well here’s the news flash: heroes take risks. They go into burning buildings to pull people out. Bravery isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the courage and the strength to do what is right even though you’re afraid. And all the people who want America to be a hero simultaneously want her to cave to fear, fear ISIL purposefully has tried to impose upon us. There are gobs of refugees in so many other countries, countries that aren’t separated from ISIL by an ocean, countries that don’t spend 47% of all the world’s military spending on their own military. And yet, they’re the ones stepping up.
So much flag-waving. So much faux patriotism. You just want America to be viewed as a hero, but you want to make her a coward and it’s obvious why. Sit down, because this is going to sting: it’s because you are cowards, racists, or some combination of the two. You demand the world’s respect without wanting to do any of the work, without taking any of the risk that doesn’t include bombing places that contain way more innocents than terrorists. That’s nice and 100% safe and the only price we might have to pay are a bunch of dead innocent people and for you that’s good enough to be a hero. But it ain’t, that’s just your cowardice coming up with justifications.
Nobody’s asking you to run into a burning building, literally or metaphorically. We just want to let people into a country where they’re safe – something that once meant a great deal to this nation if the inscription on the Statue of Liberty is any indication. Yeah, a terrorist or two might try to come over and, who knows, they might get through the extremely strict screening process to get into this country. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it and deal with it. But this argument rests on the presumption that if a terrorist sneaks through people might die and it ignores the fact that people are already dying and many more are certain to die unless countries help! Other countries are, but your big, tough, macho Republican leaders are cowering like children.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2015/11/in-1941-dr-seuss-sent-a-message-that-sadly-hasnt-lost-its-meaning
I am an anti-theist but as the daughter of a refugee I am sickened by people who would turn away those who are desperately fleeing religious persecution.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Yes, I think anyone with half a heart (see the Grinch) would empathize with any refugee.
BUT I must confess to being torn, not the least because of my own background.
50% of Muslims, in Muslim countries or the West, favor applying the Sharia (*)
And we can't just brush aside the fact the Sharia is what creates future refugees or wars.
Empathy now, civil strif etomorrow, the heart's choice is not that easy to make.
(*) detailed proof upon demand.
The wars of religion in France killed far more than WWI
WWI: 1.4M dead/40M pop
Casualty rate: 3.5%
Wars of religion: Between 2M and 4M people killed as a result of war, famine and disease/Population 20M
Casualty rate: 10 to 20%
I fear the clash between conflicting value systems: secular Constitution vs Sharia.
The fact these refugees fled violence is no guarantee they or their offspring will be grateful.
1- polls of Syrian refugees show a solid 10% support ISIS.
2- experience (Germany, Britain) suggests the second generation grows more radical than the first.
3- more generally, the ideology of Islam includes such violent notions as jihad and violent response to blasphemy, and religious ideologies take 4 to 6 generations to fade away and/or become acceptable to the host culture.
Back to my frog and scorpion question: because many among the refugees deeply believe in the Muslim ideology, and because that ideology is actively being radicalized by the KSA and Qatar, are we sure welcoming refugees is not fraught with danger down the line in 10, 20, 30 years?
I am scared or scorpions and of religions.
That is who you'd turn away.
granted, the Sharia courts in the uK have not attempted to deal with criminal cases.
But Sharia arbitration is dealing with theft cases in Germany.
And Sharia arbitration 'courts' in the UK have predominance over secular courts in matters like divorce.
I remember a few testimonies by women who were desperate to get a Sharia divorce ruling in their favor, even after they had been granted divorce by a legal UK court.
Based on that kind of soft power over hearts and minds, I'm not quite sure one can't quite call them courts.
...this:
I wrote a thread to detail that:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1218217987
About 2/3rds Muslims favor the application of Sharia in Muslim majority countries.
It would be utopian to expect that proportion to reach zero in one or two generations after moving to secular democracies.
Especially when petrodollars fan the flames of extremism worldwide.
My Mom wasn't fleeing Nazi's but the USA helped defeat the Japanese who wanted Australia.
I have met (lived among) a population of people who fled the Nazi's and had the scars from bullets and torture, some had a numbered tattoo, all in different parts of the world, at different times in my life.
The folks who fought and escaped the Nazi's were Slav's and I was a child. We communicated using gestures and a few words as they didn't speak English. They told me their stories and showed me the scars. They were wonderful, hard working people who had no children. Two brothers, a sister and a nephew...all that was left of their family.
People can be unbelievably cruel, even to children. People in my fathers family, including my grandfather never accepted my Mother because she was a foreigner...their words. I wonder how they think everyone in America, who isn't Native American, got here
I used to be proud to be an American but not anymore sad to say. I know how hard it is to fit in with a new area so I go out of my way to try to make new people feel welcome and I enjoy learning from people with different cultural experiences from my own.
I'm so glad your Mom escaped and gave you to us BMUS....
