Where to go, where to go?

Is there no home for me?

Where to go, where to go?

By land, air, or sea?

From the land of my birth,

To the ends of the earth — Where to go, where to go?

Because there is no home for me.

This immensely sad song, originally in Yiddish, came out of the Nazi Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s. But President Donald Trump’s recent ban on admittance to America from seven Middle Eastern nations, whose residents are existentially threatened by a new holocaust, returns the world to that time 70 years ago when so many sat by and did so little for victims.

The least that all people of good will can do is to speak out forcefully and repudiate this latest Trump outrage. A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., took the lead by suspending some parts of this misguided Trump policy as abusive of the human rights of those who are targeted, stating clearly that returning refugees who have come to the United States legally and properly would cause “irreparable harm.” As examples, there are the Iraqi man who once worked as a translator for American military forces in Iraq, at considerable personal risk; and the Syrian college student who was prevented from meeting his wife, only a few yards away at a New York airport. They can stay for now in the U.S. — but only temporarily, pending a higher court ruling.

The new president seems to be signing a host of executive orders without even reading or understanding them — but with his typical showmanship, holding up documents for photo opportunities and handing out pens to the favored few. One senses the cruel hand of key Trump advisor Stephen Bannon in all of this, as Bannon has long favored the “America First” policy which has moved from a Trump campaign slogan to become a hallmark of this presidency. It is interesting to note  that the leaders of the 1930s' Nazi movement in the U.S. used that same slogan to try to keep America from defending Europe from Hitler and his minions, hoping that they would be rewarded after the Nazis had conquered Europe and were moving on to the United States.

It is ironic that the most likely result of the Trump ban on immigrants from seven nations — none of whose citizens have ever attacked America — will be the encouragement given to ISIS and al-Qaida to use that ban as proof of American hatred of Muslims: a great recruiting tool.

Reinforcing that view is the bizarre exception which this Trump policy makes for those of the Christian faith who seek to enter America from those same seven nations. They will not fall under these harsh restrictions; rather, they will be welcomed to America. This is consistent with Trump’s frequent attacks on Islam and Muslims during his campaign; it is also likely unconstitutional, as it violates both the equal protection and freedom of religion provisions. But, then, Trump and his team are already shredding the Constitution; perhaps they have a White House contest to see who can violate the most Articles. At that awful task, they are indeed succeeding. 

Eugene F. Elander is a freelance columnist and self-decribed progressive social and political activist. He and his wife, Birgit, divide their time between Georgia and her homeland of Gotland, Sweden.