Saturday, February 4, 2017

Provocative? Certainly. Unfair? Don't Really Think So...


I well-recognize that people who support 45's border policies may genuinely believe he is trying to make America "safer". [I may disagree about whether that is possible -- but I can understand that desire, at least.]

So. . . I can understand their anger -- at the latest Der Spiegel (German) cover.

But even if we were to accept that these executive orders will help America become "safer" (a proposition for which there is almost no evidence), the point of the cover, it seems to me -- is to suggest that America ought not abandon its "guiding light" role, on freedoms -- in order to do so. We are were the nation that for so long has declared:

. . . .Give us your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free. . . .


We cannot abandon that clarion call (forgetting for the moment, our own Constitution's strictures), in an ill-considered, illogical and vain drive to chase a clearly non-existent level of "safety".

The former Premier of Norway was detained for hours at Dulles airport in DC yesterday, because his passport showed he had been to Iran in 2014. Mr. Trump, stand down -- you are humiliating the USA before the world's more thoughtful leaders. Moreover, three separate non-partisan federal judges (on both coasts) have held that your order is likely unconstitutional.

[Can anyone translate the German for us, here (?) -- I would love to contrast the 44 article, in a snippet, with the 45 one.] Namaste, and. . . I'm off -- out into the warm sunshine now. . . . smile.

नमस्ते

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Translation of the German article:

Debate on immigration ban - first statement of Barack Obama

Barack Obama has given a statement for the first time after Donald Trump's inauguration. In his statement the 44th president kept his distance to the controversial executive order of his successor and indirectly encouraged protests.

Only ten days after leaving the White House, the 44th President of the United States has released his first statement. Barack Obama, being on a vacation in California, has published his stance on the disputed immigration ban of his successor - without explicitly referring to Donald Trump. Trump had issued an executive order last Friday which banned people from seven countries with a majority of Muslims - an action which has sparked protests of many Americans and has even encountered resistance in congress and the administration.

"The president (Editor's note: referring to former president Obama) is fundamentally opposed to any form of discrimination based on belief or religion." Obama's spokesman Kevin Lewis added, that Obama is "encouraged" by the political commitment of fellow Americans. The magazine "Politico" quoted Obama's spokesman: "Americans, who practice their fundamental rights to gather and organize themselves is exactly what we need in times when American values are endangered"

condor said...

Thank you so much!

Namaste