Monday, November 23, 2015

Leave Your Opinions at the Door (or at least behind your computer screen)

When we think back to Hitler's era in the 1930s, we manage to glaze over the fact the many countries, including the U.S., denied entry to the thousands of Jews that wanted to escape his regime in Germany. In hindsight, especially after Nazi Germany slaughtered approximately 11 million people, 6 million of them Jews, we now know that was a mistake. That is why the recent reactions to the Syrian refugee crisis in the wake of the Paris attacks is so shocking. We've been here before and our lack of action cost many people their lives in some of the most unspeakable ways. If you are not well versed in Nazi Germany and the Syrian Civil War, then you know there are marked differences between the two situations. However some of the words and phrases, spoken from the lips of politicians, are eerily parallel. Luckily, most Americans can see through the hate.

1. Donald Trump Wants Muslims to Carry Special IDs and Track Them All

 On Thursday, Republican Donald Trump told Yahoo News! that he would "look closely" into having Muslim Americans carry special IDs; he also told MSNBC that he would implement a database to track all Muslims in the U.S. This "idea" is a more modern take on the yellow badge that Jews were required to wear as a special ID for their Jewish faith and to keep track of them.




2. Ben Carson Compares Syrian Refugees With Rabid Dogs
After a campaign stop in Alabama while talking to reporters, another Republican candidate, Ben Carson said, "If there is a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you're probably gonna put your children out of the way. Doesn't mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination." This comparison is similar to how Nazis referred to Jews as animals, from ants to mice, scum to monkeys, and pigs to apes. Jews were regularly called horrific names and it was considered a commonplace.





3. A Democratic Mayor Praised Japanese Internment Camps For His Justification of Refusing Refugees

David Bowers, the Democratic mayor of Roanoke Valley, Virginia, released a statement requiring all agencies to stop assisting refugees settling in his town-- but he did so by praising F.D. Roosevelt for putting Japanese-Americans in internment camps. He wrote: "I'm reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from ISIS now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then."

Not only were 120,000 Japanese-Americans forcefully taken out of their homes and put into these camps, Jews in Nazi Germany were propped up in several concentration camps where millions of innocent Jews were tortured and murdered.



 4. The House Votes to Restrict Entry to Syrian Refugees

 On Thursday,and overwhelming majority of representatives (289 to 137) voted to make an exponentially tougher screening process for the refugees coming in the U.S. despite veto threats from the White House.  Meanwhile, two other U.S. senators and presidential candidates, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, are drafting bills that would only allow Christian ones into the U.S. First, it's been firmly debunked that one of the terrorists in the Paris attacks was a Syrian refugee, second, moments like this will be marked down as another ugly legislative moment in our history.

In February 1939, Congress rejected a bill to accept 20,000 Jewish refugees and turned away ships filled with Jewish refugees fleeing prosecution only for them to return back to Germany and endure the Holocaust.




5. Most Americans Don't Want Refugees Coming Into the United States

 The discovery of a (now known to be fake) Syrian passport caused many to initially believe one of the Paris attackers was a Syrian refugee, though later investigations revealed they were all European nationals. This launched widespread hysteria across the county making people fearful that refugees entering the country will bring along terrorism threats. In July 1938, Fortune magazine published a poll where 67.4 percent of Americans believed Jewish refugees should be kept out of the U.S. The reason to the high percentage is unknown, possibly could be the affects of the Great Depression, where anti-immigrant settlement was surging due to lack of employment opportunities. However, some believe that the main reason why many refused to accept the Jews had to do with  anti-semitism and bigotry. Somethings have become way to similar.






So what do you think? Can you see the similarities and differences? And does this cause you to look at our possible future American leaders in a different light?

xoxo, Kaila
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