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THE SHADOW of FEAR and the PLIGHT of SYRIA'S REFUGEES
Violence in the world is real, and those who seek to commit violence against others who do not believe as they do are also real... We join them by losing touch with our own hearts. We join them by giving power to fear rather than to our intention to love... by abandoning the universal principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for all.
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A shadow is moving across this great land, this land of the free, this land whose welcoming motto has, for more than a century, been: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." This shadow is composed entirely of fear, fear that breeds walls, fear that breeds self-protection rather than protection for all, fear that pits one belief, or color, or ideology, or persuasion against another, declaring that the 'other' must be kept out so that we can be kept safe.
This shadow must be met with courage and with the determination to seek protection for all, to seek the good of all. For its purpose is separation and its outcome the division of this nation into separate parts and separate belief systems, rather than one that is indivisible and that seeks to embrace all.
Violence in the world is real, and those who seek to commit violence against others who do not believe as they do are also real. Yet the cause of this violence is the loss of humanity that has come over certain individuals and groups so that they no longer identify with the collective human lot, but rather only with their own cause and with their own needs and justifications. They have lost touch with their own hearts, and in doing so have become able to commit atrocities that to others are unimaginable.
We join them by losing touch with our own hearts. We join them by giving power to fear rather than to our intention to love. We join them by abandoning the universal principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for all. And, in abandoning these principles for all, we relegate ourselves to the darkness of our own collective past that permitted these principles to be applied to 'all' but those of darker skin, or those who were native-born, not of European descent. We join, once again, with the principle of exclusion that played so great a part in our past, even while our principles espoused something different. We cannot afford to do this today.
Today there is an outcry of fear arising from the voices of many that a certain group of people should be prohibited from entering our borders because a few among them might present a danger to us. There is an outcry, even more selective, that only those with similar religious orientation should be permitted entry into our country. This, beloved ones, is the shadow. It is the shadow of fear that gives rise to exclusion, self-protection, oligarchy, and eventually to a state or nation that operates solely on the basis of the power to exclude based on anticipated threat, rather than a state or nation that governs according to the principles of justice and the rights of all.
The shadow of fear is encroaching upon this great land, and those who are asleep need to recognize it and to stand firm in their desire to uphold the principles that have welcomed the oppressed, past and present, to our shores. This Lady, who represents the true beliefs of what America stands for says, in New York harbor, to all who are in need: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." May her message be heard.
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