No Time for Fear Or Silence

victoriakaharl
Jan 31, 2017
3 min read

Updated: Dec 31, 2021

Syrian refugees at the Keleti train station in Budapest after the government closed the station to them, September 4, 2015. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov.

“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

-- Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, from The Nation's 150th Anniversary Special Edition, April 2015.

The author says she reached this sensibility in 2004 coming out of “an extremely dark mood” following the re-election of George W. Bush. She has expressed similar thoughts in interviews (Toni Morrison: Conversations, 2008).

Toni Morrison's words have special resonance these days, especially for refugees. On January 27, 2017, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any refugees from immigrating to the US for four months; refugees from Syria were banned indefinitely.

The legality and constitutionality of his order were quickly challenged; and courts blocked the order. On February 5, a Federal Appeals Court denied Trump's attempt to restore the order.

From Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State

The Statue of Liberty is weeping...

This is a cruel measure that represents a stark departure from America's core values. We have a proud tradition of sheltering those fleeing violence and persecution, and have always been the world leader in refugee resettlement. As a refugee myself who fled the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, I personally benefited from this country's generosity and its tradition of openness. This order would end that tradition, and discriminate against those fleeing a brutal civil war in Syria.

There is no data to support the idea that refugees pose a threat. This policy is based on fear, not facts. …

I will never forget sailing into New York Harbor for the first time and seeing the Statue of Liberty when I came here as a child. It proclaims "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty, and today she is weeping.

From Rev in Connecticut

My heart is breaking…

The moral and human fallout of the travel ban enacted by President Trump is even worse than I imagined, much more dire than a mere "inconvenience" cited by the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. It is literally a death sentence for some in extreme medical and impoverished situations. Many will not survive the delay (see Washington Post, Trump’s refugee ban is a matter of life and death for some, including a 1-year-old with cancer).

It reminds me of the dark period during WW II when the US turned away a boatload of Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis, a German ocean liner. There were more than 900 refugees on that ship. They were so close, they could see the lights of Miami from the sea, where they pleaded for entry. We literally sent 254 of over 800+ refugees back to their deaths in Nazi-occupied Europe.

My heart is breaking for the refugees whose hopes have been dashed and my heart is breaking for our country. We are better than this.

- Rev