Mediaboss Marketing

A refugee is someone who seeks refuge in another country than their own because of legitimate fear of persecution, capture and imprisonment, torture and/or death based on their religion, gender, race, ethnicity or political beliefs.

We are a country of immigrants, and many of our forebears were refugees escaping religious or political persecution, as well as a new way of life to escape poverty.

Pilgrims came to Massachusetts, Catholics sought haven in Maryland, and many Jews were welcomed to Savannah by Georgia Gov. George Oglethorpe, who welcomed all religions. This is how our country was formed, but at the expense of the indigenous Indians, and with the moral blight of slaves brought into servitude from Africa.

Our history is not perfect, but it is built on welcoming immigrants from all over, which has made our country a beautiful quilt of diverse peoples and cultures.

President Donald Trumps executive order banning refugees from seven Mideastern and African countries raises many serious legal questions that will be resolved in the courts. But the even bigger question for us as Americans is whether we believe this is what America stands for. Is this who we are?

One of the inevitable effects of this order is to enable extremist jihadists to recruit members, because the U.S. is demonstrating that we hate Muslims and indicating that our two cultures can never live peaceably together.

We are jeopardizing our military who are working alongside Muslim soldiers in the Mideast who may now view the American beside them as the enemy.

Some of the banned refugees are interpreters for the American military stopped from entry to the U.S., along with their families, even though if they are returned to their countries or not allowed to leave they will likely be killed.

Yes, we want an effective vetting system, but refugees denied by this order have been fully vetted and cleared, and should be admitted to our country unless there is new information showing them to be risks.

As a country, we failed our moral duty before when we failed to allow ships full of Jews from Europe seeking refuge from the Nazis to deliver passengers to Cuba or Miami. Instead, we ordered them to return to Europe, and almost every one of them died in concentration camps in the Holocaust.

That moral stain will stay on the American conscience forever.

Let us avoid another moral stain on the honor of our country. It is simply not American to ban Muslims simply because of their faith, but to allow Christians from the same countries to be admitted.

Even more important than the First Amendment to the Constitution, which this policy violates, is our humanity, which is central to who we are.

The welcoming light of the Statue of Liberty welcomes those yearning to breathe free, not just Christians. And, for those of us who are Christians, if we really ask ourselves what would Jesus do, we have to know the answer: Do not judge and discriminate against your fellow man based on his religion.

If we dim the bright light of fairness and mercy that the Statue of Liberty has always symbolized, then it may be the first light of democracy that goes out in America. Others will follow.

Dorian is a DeLand resident.

Read more here:
Linda Colvard Dorian: Don't dim the bright light of democracy - The West Volusia Beacon