It has been a brutal few months. Part of what has made is so infuriating is the sense that we being led by someone with no idea of what America is, and what makes it exception (if indeed we ever where)
To the Trump Administration multiculturalism is the negation of American Exceptionalism.
To liberals multiculturalism is the PROOF of American Exceptionalism. If the idea of this country means anything, it is that what is true about it is true for everyone.
And so I came across this image I was stunned.
The Statute of Liberty hugging the brown girl in the burqa. Because that is the whole idea: here you are safe. I look at that picture and I see my forefathers. Some fleeing because they were Protestant. They fled for the same reason that girl did, and their right to that safety was no greater nor less than hers. Some famous people have stood in that protective embrace: people like Einstein. And many more millions, equally as important and equally entitled to that protection have stood there too.
And the artist has perfectly capture the moment in the face of Liberty. Because you can tell she is offended. She wonders what has gone wrong, she wonders if we still understand what the whole point is. Frankly she looks pissed.
In truth this country has never been the equal to its creed. It may no longer true, indeed probably is true, that limits will be placed on who can come here.
But those limits should NEVER be imposed on refugees. They shouldn’t be the last in line — they should be the first. It is the most vulnerable we should welcome, because no one else can more benefit from coming here.
And no one else can remind us of who we aspire to be more effectively.