The Irony of Trump’s Muslim Ban

The following words have greeted new immigrants to America for generations:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,/With conquering limbs astride from land to land;/Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand/
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame/Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name/Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand/Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command/The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame/”Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she/With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

When my great grandparents and millions of others immigrated to America around the turn of the 20th century, these words welcomed them with open arms. They fled repression, hunger, poverty and hatred, looking for freedom and opportunity in America, known as the golden medina (the golden land).

Donald Trump’s new ban on immigration and specifically, Muslim immigration was enacted this week. The reaction has been swift and angry. America is the land of immigrants and the land of opportunity. While I have no problem vetting potential immigrants to prevent terrorist attacks, I do have a problem with a carte blanche ban on all refugees from entering America.

The irony of the ban is that while some refugees from some Muslim majority countries have been banned from entering, the border is still open to other Muslim majority countries.The countries that we are still accepting refugees from, have only contributed to terrorist attacks, but also has ties to Trump’s past business dealings.

This man has been in the Oval Office for a little more than a week and has already turned this country and this world upside down and not for the better.

It grieves me to think of the lives that could potentially be lost within the next few months. But they’re only refugees fleeing destruction, hatred and poverty, who gives a rats ass about them? Not our President, obviously.

Happy Birthday, Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is 204 today.

Jane Austen‘s most well known novel may seem on the outside like the standard romance novel, but it is so much more.

Yes, the basic plot line is the will they or won’t they question regarding the potential match of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. But Jane Austen was a very smart woman. She knew that her novel had to be much more than the standard love story. An astute observer of her world, Pride and Prejudice and all of her novels are both a road map to the Georgian era and a testament to the folly and joy of humanity.

There are meddling parents, marriages for marriage sake, teenage girls with nothing but clothes and boys on the brain and so much more.

Anyone who knows me or had read this blog knows that Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite books and Jane Austen is one of my all time favorite writers. This book is a revelation. It’s no wonder that it has not only been adapted time and again, but it’s plot and characters copied by other writers for other stories.

Jane Austen was a certifiable genius and her book, Pride and Prejudice will last for eternity as one of the classics for the ages.