No Muslims Please!
A Brief Comment from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
A new Bloomberg poll, taken in the United States since the November 13th Paris terrorist attacks , shows more than half the Americans surveyed stand against President Barack Obama’s plan to welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. in the months ahead and in favour of a call Republican presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz to keep them out.
Sadly, this person in somewhere U.S.A. may be outnumbered by those who would rather give the thumbs up to Donald Trump and thumbs down to Syrian refugees
Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has gone so far as to say that to keep Syrian refugees out, he would further fortify that “big beautiful wall” he would build to keep all those so-called undocumented Mexicans out after they are finished cleaning toilets for nickels and dimes for the circle of fat wallets he hangs with when he’s not pandering to peons at campaign rallies.
The Bloomberg poll shows that 53 per cent of Anericans now want the doors to their country shut to Syrian refugees while 11 per cent would accept only those who are Christians. Only 28 per cent want the doors left open to refugees from Syrian, just so long as there is a careful screening process in place.
President Obama and front-running Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have separately called any closing of the doors to refugees or subjecting them to a “religion test” shameful and un-America. In an address she delivered on national security issues this November 19th, Clinton referred again to calls by some Republican leaders to either let in none or let in only Christians, saying “the American people are better than that.”
The Donald -It is going to be “a beautiful, big wall.”
Well, the vast majority of Americans among my friends and associates are, most certainly, better than that, but then there are the ones who are drawn to the likes of a Donald Trump or Ted Cruz who so masterfully tap into their fear and rage.
And frighteningly enough, there may very well be enough of them to make the difference when it comes time to decide to decide who is the next President of the United States.
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I believe that Ted Cruze (?) spoke of “proven” Christians. How would you “prove” someone was a “real” Christian? Wouldn’t that be a person who follows the teachings and the example of Jesus Christ? And doesn’t welcoming these people—strangers, famiiies who have fled the violence and destruction of their homes and communities, taking only what they can carry with them—is that not something that is entirely consistent with the teachings of and the example set by Jesus?
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At the St. Catharines Cenotaph service last week, a whole different tone was set, many attendees agreed. There was a homily from the chaplain from Mathew about accepting and understanding the enemies, the ‘others’. He made a solid reference to honouring not just the dead, but the returning soldiers, all “scarred” by wars. Whatever wars.
There was, for the first time in my memory, the singing of our National Anthem, followed by (yes, strikingly) the American National Anthem. As well, an American Marine was allowed to place a wreath among the many others. The flypast, the first in over a decade, I believe, was a Lancaster Bomber and possibly a Spitfire. Applause broke out. Yes, fewer Vets of course, but also, More noticeable, and striking, was less Military Presence. It spoke much to us, whatever our Political Partisanship (I conversed with known Conservative members there) of a whole change of looking at our world.
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Whether we like it or not the human species is still tribal and dislikes anything strange and unfamiliar. We are still not entirely evolved in spite of our arrogant belief otherwise.
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