Voyage of the Damned II...Obama Denies Asylum to German Home-School Family

(c) 2013 by Tom King

It's 2013 and people are STILL fleeing Nazi persecution and STILL being turned away by Democrat presidents.

FDR in 1939 turned away 939 Jewish refugees on the SS St. Louis. Nearly a third of those eventually were captured by the Nazis and died in Auschwitz and its sister death camps.

Barak Obama in 2013 is trying to deport a German family fleeing Germany to keep their children from being taken away under a 1938 Nazi era law prohibiting home-schooling.

If you don't know about the St. Louis, here's what happened.  In 1939 Hitler decided in a bold public relations stunt to prove that nobody else wanted the Jews either.  He loaded nearly a thousand Jews onto a ship with tourist visas and sent them sailing about the Atlantic looking for refuge status. Cuba, their original destination took a few and sent them away.  FDR rejected them under threat from Southern Democrats to withdraw their support from him in the 1940 election.  Canada turned them away as did Britain.  They finally landed in places like France, Belgium and Holland where fully a third of them were captured and murdered in the Nazi death camps.

Fast forward to 2013.  The Romeike Case is about the Romeikes, a German family who fled Germany because of persecution by the government over home-schooling their children.  Home-schooling is illegal in Germany under a 1938 law that prohibits the practice.  Yes, you read that right. The law dates back to Hitler's Germany and was enacted to insure that the government had full control over what children were taught.  The Hitler Youth sprung up as the fruits of this law. 

The Obama administration fails to see any irony in backing the German law (written by the way by a government that notoriously compared Jews and blacks to monkeys, murdered one group and banned the music of the other as being corruptive of German youth.

What is particularly revelatory is the way the Democrat government that is so concerned with being fair and merciful to illegal immigrants who sneaked across the border illegally, can turn around and be completely unsympathetic with a family who came here legally, were originally granted asylum and who are supporting themselves and paying taxes. The Obama Administration has all the latitude it needs to grant the Romeikes asylum.  Instead they are burning up tax dollars to prosecute this family and to drive them back into the arms of a German government determined to either force them to send their kids to public school or to take their children from them.  They let known terrorists like the Boston Marathon bombers not only enter the country, but also to sign up for nearly a hundred thousand dollars in cumulative welfare and they want to turn out a family that needs no welfare, costs the school system nothing and actually pay their taxes. It's mind boggling.

In revoking their asylum, the administration makes two arguments:

1. They argue that because the Romeike's have the choice to simple obey the German law and send their kids to public school.  Therefore, according to the Obama administration, they are not being persecuted. One supposes they make that determination under the "your children don't belong to you"/"It takes a village" principal.
2. They also argue that because the Romeike's are not a member of any recognized persecuted group (Muslims, blacks or..........well, Muslims) that they have no right to asylum.

In other words they aren't the right race or religion to receive protection. The argument seems to be that if you're white and Christian, you don't need any protection from persecution - ever!

This would be shocking except that this ruling is from an administration that has always lumped people into groups by race, creed, color and voting blocks.

To find out more about the Romeike case click on this link and follow the links to sign the petition on Whitehouse.gov. 

I hope we get 20 million signatures.

Just sayin'

Tom

Where's a Statesman When We Need One?



The Greatest Statesman of My Lifetime - Bar None

 One of my favorite weblogs, "The Art of Manliness", just ran a piece called "The Four Qualities of a True Statesman."  Brett & Kay McKay, the authors, certainly picked a subject that would get a lot of comments. Predictably the Paulestinians came out in force and I'm thrilled they're getting so many hits off those guys. They've really kicked the ad revenue of small political blogs like mine into high gear. All you have to do to get a spike is to mention Ron Paul and step back and let the comments roll in.

I agree with Brett's analysis as to what a statesman is. It's not hard to spot a statesman. The top 4 American statesmen who made president in the 1800s are carved on Mt. Rushmore. I think you could add Daniel Webster and Henry Clay to that list whether you like their politics or not. Of all of them, I think Washington was the father and model of true American statesmanship. Lincoln had the toughest job, Jefferson the greatest impact on personal freedom and Teddy Roosevelt was the man on foreign policy - him and his "big stick".

In the 20th century, I’d pick FDR, Eisenhower and Reagan – and possibly Harry Truman. Reagan always befuddled "real" politicians because Reagan actually believed all that stuff he was saying and "the people" believed him when he said it. I believe the others I mentioned had that ability as well, with differing degrees of success at carrying public opinion along with them. Truman, who was no career politician, believed the buck stopped with him and that is very statesmanlike and all kind of manly.

In the 21st century we’ve had a shortage of statesmen so far. I’ll give you Ron Paul as statesmanlike, but no more. He’s as principled in what he believes ought to be done as George W. Bush was on the war on terrorism. GW was wrong on some issues as is Ron Paul. Both have fatal flaws in that they fall short in the consensus building department. I don’t think the 21st century has yet seen its first great statesman yet. The closest to a principled politician I’ve seen so far is Sarah Palin. That woman really believes what she says, though I’m not sure we’re ready to hear it from a woman quite yet, despite our efforts to change our culture in that regard. Sadly, we’re not ready for an American Margaret Thatcher. I do hope one will take the stage at some point. It would be nice to add an American iron lady to that list of iron men.

I do believe that statesmen are no accident. I believe, when we need a statesman, God will raise one up.

• “The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”  - E.G. White

Oddly enough, it was a woman who wrote that. but then who better to recognize a real man when she sees one?

Just one man's opinion.

Tom King