# 41% of Americans support Syrian immigration **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 19, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009 "2015-11-19T20:16:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Latimera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/latimera/32/497_2.png) [@Latimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latimera)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/142 "2015-11-21T03:17:16Z")
> [@Renaissance\_Man](#): > > You pretend that it was an isolated incident, and so long ago that it is no longer relevant. Your broad brush assumption is reprehensible, and so is the ongoing defense of Muslim violence, ignorance, terror, and mayhem. There have been many, many other incidences of riots, protests, and badmouthing of every western civilization that has been foolish enough to welcome tens of thousands, with countless barbarians in their midst. Here is but another: > > [http://shoebat.com/2015/08/31/frightening-video-of-muslims-turning-paris-into-a-virtual-war-zone/](http://shoebat.com/2015/08/31/frightening-video-of-muslims-turning-paris-into-a-virtual-war-zone/) > > Oh wait, that was way back in August. It doesn’t count either, does it. Nor do the thousands of European women being raped by these savages. > > My bad. > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDgl2oDhY1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDgl2oDhY1o) > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me9MIie4r30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me9MIie4r30) Thousands of European women being raped by these savages? LOL! Where the heck did that come from? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/143 "2015-11-21T04:47:11Z")
Wow, I think we just said goodbye to the Angriest Man in the World. Hope he can find someplace to safely vent that rage. ---
**Author:** ![Latimera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/latimera/32/497_2.png) [@Latimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latimera)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/144 "2015-11-21T04:52:48Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Wow, I think we just said goodbye to the Angriest Man in the World. Hope he can find someplace to safely vent that rage. No kidding! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/145 "2015-11-21T05:03:45Z")
Oh, it is clear that he will have plenty of stormy places to do so. \* - Funny thing that this retort applies too to his climate change denial. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/146 "2015-11-21T05:26:22Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Renaissance Man, welcome to the SDMB. **I hope you enjoy your stay and hang out here for a long while.** > > Note, however, that insulting other posters is not allowed. I’d appreciate it if you’d refrain from doing so in the future. > > **Again, enjoy your stay and welcome**. > > PS - This would do better in Great Debates. I’ll move it there for you. I’m sorry mr moderator sir, but that was hilarious whether it was ironic or not. Thank you! 🙂 😃 ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/147 "2015-11-22T05:24:08Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > On both subjects, this video from Yale climate connections is more related to the moral reasons why the USA has more moral reasons on why we should help the Syrian refugees. > > [New video emphasizes moral, ethical messages » Yale Climate Connections](http://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2015/10/video-emphasizes-moral-ethical-messages/) > (scroll down for the video) Thanks for that link. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/148 "2015-11-22T09:20:48Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > \*Give me your tired, your poor, > Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free, > The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, > Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, > I lift my lamp beside the golden door. \* > > Unless, of course, your huddled masses are brown people that have funny names and don’t love them some Jesus. Fuck those guys. > > That must be what the big green lady meant. At least according to the House today. I know this post is a few days old but I am tired of seeing _The New Colossus_ by Emma Lazarus quoted as gospel without any response. This may surprise you, but Emma Lazarus’s poem is not and has never been US law. And the Statue of Liberty, with which it is associated, did not originally have anything to do with immigration. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/149 "2015-11-22T15:28:20Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > This may surprise you, but Emma Lazarus’s poem is not and has never been US law. This may surprise you, but no one has claimed otherwise. > [@](#): > > And the Statue of Liberty, with which it is associated, did not originally have anything to do with immigration. Originally, sure. So what? For over a century, it has served as a spiritual beacon and a symbol of American promise. And, yes, immigration, especially after “The New Colossus” was added to it in 1903. The poem has been taught in schools across the country for a hundred years. The statue has been a symbol of hope and new beginnings for the “tired and poor” for a lot longer than she served solely as a representation of Republicanism. Fuck’s sake, of _course_ it’s not law. But we as Americans have embraced the sentiment, for better or worse, for a hundred years. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are certainly not law either, but we still hold them to be guiding principles for the nation. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/150 "2015-11-22T15:36:36Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I know this post is a few days old but I am tired of seeing _The New Colossus_ by Emma Lazarus quoted as gospel without any response. This may surprise you, but Emma Lazarus’s poem is not and has never been US law. And the Statue of Liberty, with which it is associated, did not originally have anything to do with immigration. Originally we didn’t even seem to want the thing…it took decades to come up with the money in the US to building the platform. The same goes with the Washington Monument. Thanksgiving wasn’t originally a big deal and it took a dedicated few to make it the national holiday it is today. The same goes for many of the symbols we use today and take for granted. I’m sorry that Emma’s poem gets you down and all bummed out, but it HAS become one of the symbols in this country, just like the Star Spangled Banner, the Statue of Liberty and even the flag (as well as many other things) have all become symbols…and one TODAY, in the case of both the poem and the Statue are associated with immigration (and for the last century at least). Hell, the US itself, at least in our own mythos, is associated with immigration and taking in immigrants and turning them into Americans…the country itself is a symbol, even if often the symbol falls short of the reality. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/151 "2015-11-22T15:56:59Z")
I see our new friend has been disappeared, but in response to a couple of folks who mentioned how rigorous the process is for refugees to enter this country, I’ll post [this link](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/11/20/infographic-screening-process-refugee-entry-united-states) to a White House infographic, which breaks it all down very well. Apologies if it has already appeared elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/152 "2015-11-22T16:45:12Z")
> [@andros](#): > > This may surprise you, but no one has claimed otherwise. Shame. More laws oughta be written in iambic pentameter. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/153 "2015-11-23T06:28:52Z")
> [@andros](#): > > This may surprise you, but no one has claimed otherwise. > > Originally, sure. So what? For over a century, it has served as a spiritual beacon and a symbol of American promise. And, yes, immigration, especially after “The New Colossus” was added to it in 1903. The poem has been taught in schools across the country for a hundred years. The statue has been a symbol of hope and new beginnings for the “tired and poor” for a lot longer than she served solely as a representation of Republicanism. > > Fuck’s sake, of _course_ it’s not law. But we as Americans have embraced the sentiment, for better or worse, for a hundred years. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are certainly not law either, but we still hold them to be guiding principles for the nation. Well, proponents of mass immigration are always quoting it as though that settles the debate. But it’s a poem–it can’t be taken literally. Jerry Seinfeld even had a stand-up bit about it, riffing on that phrase “wretched refuse”–do you really want to import “wretched refuse” into your country? I just learned, via [John Derbyshire](http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2015-11-06.html), of a countervailing poem, “Unguarded Gates” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. I propose that a plaque with these words be installed at the Statue of Liberty next to those of Emma Lazarus: O Liberty, white Goddess! is it well To leave the gates unguarded? On thy breast Fold Sorrow’s children, soothe the hurts of fate, Lift the down-trodden, but with hand of steel Stay those who to thy sacred portals come To waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn And trampled in the dust. For so of old The thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome, And where the temples of the Cæsars stood The lean wolf unmolested made her lair. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/154 "2015-11-23T14:11:08Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > How do you feel about Muslim Communists? They make pretty good presidents, all things considered. 😉 > [@Arcite](#): > > I just learned, via [John Derbyshire](http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2015-11-06.html), of a countervailing poem, “Unguarded Gates” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. I propose that a plaque with these words be installed at the Statue of Liberty next to those of Emma Lazarus: > > O Liberty, white Goddess! is it well > To leave the gates unguarded? On thy breast > Fold Sorrow’s children, soothe the hurts of fate, > Lift the down-trodden, but with hand of steel > Stay those who to thy sacred portals come > To waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care > Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn > And trampled in the dust. For so of old > The thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome, > And where the temples of the Cæsars stood > The lean wolf unmolested made her lair. Hey, why not just put the Klan motto up there, while you’re at it? It’s actually fairly tame: > [@](#): > > Today, tomorrow, and forever ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/155 "2015-11-23T14:34:35Z")
Also, the rhyme scheme sucks. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/156 "2015-11-23T14:57:26Z")
[QUOTE=Arcite] But it’s a poem–it can’t be taken literally. [/QUOTE] And the Star Spangled Banner is just a song. And the Bill of Rights is just a piece of paper. The flag itself is just a piece of cloth. > [@](#): > > I propose that a plaque with these words be installed at the Statue of Liberty next to those of Emma Lazarus: Good luck with that. It will just magically become part of US culture and a symbol due to your proposal. 😛 I’m sure that it’s poised to catch on soon though…it’s only been out since [1895](http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/liberty/aldrich.html). Got to give these things time to become symbols after all… ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/157 "2015-11-23T15:39:19Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Well, proponents of mass immigration are always quoting it as though that settles the debate. But it’s a poem–it can’t be taken literally. Jerry Seinfeld even had a stand-up bit about it, riffing on that phrase “wretched refuse”–do you really want to import “wretched refuse” into your country? First you argue that it cannot be taken literally, then you bring up Seinfeld making a joke that relies on taking it literally. Humans are not garbage. “Wretched refuse” is a metaphor. And yes, I believe my nation of mutts and strivers is better off with them. I get that you disagree. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/158 "2015-11-23T15:51:08Z")
> [@andros](#): > > First you argue that it cannot be taken literally, then you bring up Seinfeld making a joke that relies on taking it literally. > > Humans are not garbage. “Wretched refuse” is a metaphor. And yes, I believe my nation of mutts and strivers is better off with them. I get that you disagree. And, ironically, he’s quoting the poem of a guy who was worried that all those immigrants in the late 19th century would bring the US down and destroy it…just before the US exploded in the 20th century to become the largest and most powerful superpower on the planet. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/section_maker_jupe/32/1424_2.png) [@Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Section_Maker_Jupe)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/159 "2015-11-23T15:53:49Z")
…yeah! and who amongst us is not a mutt!😃 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/160 "2015-11-23T15:56:37Z")
> [@Section\_Maker\_Jupe](#): > > …yeah! and who amongst us is not a mutt!😃 From [Stripes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083131/quotes): > [@](#): > > John Winger: Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out! The hell’s the matter with you? Stupid! We’re all very different people. We’re not Watusi. We’re not Spartans. We’re Americans, with a capital ‘A’, huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts! Here’s proof: his nose is cold! But there’s no animal that’s more faithful, that’s more loyal, more loveable than the mutt. Who saw “Old Yeller?” Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end? > > [raises his hand] ---
**Author:** ![inscrutable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e4f/32.png) [@inscrutable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inscrutable)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009/161 "2015-11-23T16:09:55Z")
Was there welfare, food stamps, etc. awaiting the Ellis Island era immigrants? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/41-of-americans-support-syrian-immigration/738009.md?page=9)