by Sandy » Sat Jan 28, 2017 8:45 pm
I was in Washington, DC on business yesterday and today, and stayed at a hotel on McPherson Square a couple of blocks from the White House. I decided to take my afternoon walk through Lafayette Park across from the White House, and Blair House, since the British PM was also in town, just to see if I could glimpse anything. The view was blocked by the inauguration reviewing stand, but when I got to the park, there was something going on. At first, I thought it might be a pro-life rally or something, and then I thought it must be a Holocaust remembrance, since there were Rabbis in and among the crowd, but it wasn't that either, because there were also a fair number of Muslims, no burkas but lots of head scarves. As it turned out, it was a prayer vigil for the refugees who were about to be trapped by one of the President's latest executive orders. I stayed for a while.
The speaker made note of the irony of the Vice President's remarks just an hour or so earlier, regarding the sanctity of life, as the administration prepared to issue an executive order that not only flies in the face of that principle, but undoes one of the very core values upon which this nation was founded. This wasn't an angry mob shouting slogans, this was a group of people who were genuinely fearful, and who understood the implications of an order that delays any admissions by 120 days (on a false premise that the vetting process isn't strong enough) which will lead to the inevitable death of many of those seeking refuge in the US. Some of them applied seeking political asylum, because either the ISIS leadership or the Assad regime wants them dead. This will assure the deaths of many of them. How can you claim to believe in the sanctity of life, and refuse to use the power you have to give protection to someone who is desperately asking you for it? They are refugees from wars and violence stemming mostly from bad US policy and interference in their region, but we won't take them in any more.
I was encouraged by the experience. It's not a common, everyday experience for Muslims, Jews and Christians of all stripes (including some Southern Baptists that I met) in that kind of unity. Lots of conversation afterward, hand shaking, embracing. I can't recall a similar experience in my life where I encountered people from so many different religious backgrounds in the same place and time. I had friendly conversations with a Jesuit priest, a couple of Rabbis from Providence, and a Muslim couple who were worried about their children's safety in school.
Lawsuits already filed, and my guess is the courts will overturn the order, because it is clearly aimed at a religious group, and that's a constitutional no-no. If opposition to Trump cuts across all those lines, that's good news that bodes well for 2018.