Va. mayor suggests Jap style internment camps over Syrian refugees "like FDR did"

[wizardwatson]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2...gees/76016936/

Mayor David Bowers wrote in a statement: "I'm reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then."

He's right. The ISIS threat is just as real as the threat from terrorist Japs after Pearl Harbor.

That is to say "imaginary".

We should definitely make them wear patches on their clothing to identify them as Syrians. I want to make sure I can spot one of these little rats if they escape their cage.

[wizardwatson]

From the article. Didn't realize George Takei was in one of these internment camps.

Actor and Japanese-American George Takei wrote on Facebook: "Mayor Bowers, there are a few key points of history you seem to have missed."

"The internment (not a "sequester") was not of Japanese "foreign nationals," but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens," Takei writes. "I was one of them, and my family and I spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It is my life's mission to never let such a thing happen again in America."

In fairness, after rereading the article, perhaps they did detain foreign nationals, I don't know. Maybe the mayor wasn't talking about the internment camps, or maybe he's uneducated about it and didn't understand the whole story.

[timosman]

From the article. Didn't realize George Takei was in one of these internment camps.



In fairness, after rereading the article, perhaps they did detain foreign nationals, I don't know. Maybe the mayor wasn't talking about the internment camps, or maybe he's uneducated about it and didn't understand the whole story.

Payback is a bitch. Look what happened to McCain. The more people I make go through the same ordeal the better.

[Ronin Truth]

We gots lots of FEMA camps to house them.

[enhanced_deficit]

What significance "like FDR" has here?



The U.S. Government Turned Away Thousands of Jewish Refugees, Fearing That They Were Nazi Spies

State Department and FDR claimed that Jewish immigrants could threaten national security



Jewish refugees about the St. Louis(Wikimedia Commons) By Daniel A. Gross

November 18, 2015 2:20PM

... turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...957324/?no-ist

[fisharmor]

Yeah I had to leave a comment for Takei because his response to Bowers on FB was to invite him, at Takei's expense, to a broadway show Takei is on where they talk about their experiences in the camps.

I thought that was incredibly big of him, to repay hatred with love.

[fisharmor]

Takei's FB post:

Earlier today, the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, Mr. David A. Bowers, in the attached letter, joined several state governors in ordering that Syrian refugees not receive any government assistance, or be relocated to their jurisdiction. Apart from the lack of legal authority to do so (under the Refugee Act of 1980, only the President has authority to accept or deny refugees), his resort to fear-based tactics, and his galling lack of compassion for people fleeing these same terrorists, Mayor Bowers made the following startling statement:

“I’m reminded that Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.”

Mayor Bowers, there are a few key points of history you seem to have missed:

1) The internment (not a "sequester") was not of Japanese "foreign nationals," but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. I was one of them, and my family and I spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It is my life’s mission to never let such a thing happen again in America.

2) There never was any proven incident of espionage or sabotage from the suspected “enemies” then, just as there has been no act of terrorism from any of the 1,854 Syrian refugees the U.S. already has accepted. We were judged based on who we looked like, and that is about as un-American as it gets.

3) If you are attempting to compare the actual threat of harm from the 120,000 of us who were interned then to the Syrian situation now, the simple answer is this: There was no threat. We loved America. We were decent, honest, hard-working folks. Tens of thousands of lives were ruined, over nothing.

Mayor Bowers, one of the reasons I am telling our story on Broadway eight times a week in Allegiance is because of people like you. You who hold a position of authority and power, but you demonstrably have failed to learn the most basic of American civics or history lessons. So Mayor Bowers, I am officially inviting you to come see our show, as my personal guest. Perhaps you, too, will come away with more compassion and understanding.

-- George Takei

[erowe1]

I don't think this idea would be nearly as bad as what FDR did. Camps for refugees who willingly chose to go stay in them would still be improving their situations over having no better place to go.

[Ronin Truth]

Maybe George will put them up.

[Weston White]

Most of those people were Americans whose families had descended from Japan. And all such camps are sordidly unconstitutional.

[Ronin Truth]

Most of those people were Americans whose families had descended from Japan. And all such camps are sordidly unconstitutional.

OK, and your point would be?

'Lysander Spooner once said that he believed "that by false interpretations, and naked usurpations, the government has been made in practice a very widely, and almost wholly, different thing from what the Constitution itself purports to authorize." At the same time, he could not exonerate the Constitution, for it "has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist." It is hard to argue with that.' -- Thomas E. Woods Jr

[liveandletlive]

and Captain Murica over here who is berating a Muslim civil engineer and yelling "every Moslem is a turrrist" can help foot the bill of housing them.

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/loca...ting/76027308/

[fisharmor]

and Captain Murica over here who is berating a Muslim civil engineer and yelling "every Moslem is a turrrist" can help foot the bill of housing them.

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/loca...ting/76027308/

Ouch, that's too close to home. I have kin living there.

You know, these days about twice a week I turn to the wife and ask "Is it time to leave the country yet?"

[Nirvikalpa]

and Captain Murica over here who is berating a Muslim civil engineer and yelling "every Moslem is a turrrist" can help foot the bill of housing them.

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/loca...ting/76027308/

Wow, that actually made me uncomfortable.

Yes, he can foot the bill.

[cjm]

Wow, that actually made me uncomfortable.

Yes, he can foot the bill.

Rocktown? Welcome to the 6th, neighbor!

[wizardwatson]

and Captain Murica over here who is berating a Muslim civil engineer and yelling "every Moslem is a turrrist" can help foot the bill of housing them.

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/loca...ting/76027308/

Americans can be some ignorant asses. "All Muslims are terrorists! I don't care what you say!"

Bookstore named Isis? Attack it.
Sikh wearing a turban? Taliban. Attack him.

9/11 was crazy. My wife was Indian and her family was here and at that time they were part owners of a few convenience stores. Father in law was punched once, yelled at numerous times, as was my wife. Had a stop sign pole thrown through our store as well.

I was actually the first one that was paranoid. Right after it happened I was like this is not good for you guys. There like, "what? They were Saudi's. That has nothing to do with us. We're Hindu."

Sorry. Brown and not Mexican = Turrist to boobus.

[wizardwatson]

And to the Muslim lady pleading that many immigrants came here to escape the same religious persecution that he is representing.

Sorry. Boobus would require an education to understand that. Probably doesn't know what 'persecution' means for starters.

[DFF]

Rather than putting ISIS refugees in camps, how about not letting them in the country in the first place?

[enhanced_deficit]

and Captain Murica over here who is berating a Muslim civil engineer and yelling "every Moslem is a turrrist" can help foot the bill of housing them.

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/loca...ting/76027308/

Freedom rotates every few decades as muslims and christians take turns on the terrist wheel.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6045057

[fisharmor]

Rather than putting ISIS refugees in camps, how about not letting them in the country in the first place?

Does the government "let" you own guns?
Does the government "let" you speak freely?
Does the government "let" the press report what it chooses?
Does the government "let" you own property?
Does the government "let" you have a jury trial if you're accused of a crime?

Of course the answer to all of these in today's USA is YES.

I submit the trouble some of you are having understanding us recently is that some of us here think a political philosophy where the government "lets" us do or have things is fundamentally anti-liberty.

Either human beings are universally vested with fundamental rights, or we are not.
There is no breaking people into groups if that's what we're talking about. You can't put some humans in one group and assign them "rights", and deny those "rights" to other people.
Either the things you're assigning to those humans aren't actually rights tied to their humanity, or, you're making the case that those people aren't actually humans.

Neither of those ideas is compatible with liberty.

[Ronin Truth]

Does the government "let" you own guns?
Does the government "let" you speak freely?
Does the government "let" the press report what it chooses?
Does the government "let" you own property?
Does the government "let" you have a jury trial if you're accused of a crime?

Of course the answer to all of these in today's USA is YES.

I submit the trouble some of you are having understanding us recently is that some of us here think a political philosophy where the government "lets" us do or have things is fundamentally anti-liberty.

Either human beings are universally vested with fundamental rights, or we are not.
There is no breaking people into groups if that's what we're talking about. You can't put some humans in one group and assign them "rights", and deny those "rights" to other people.
Either the things you're assigning to those humans aren't actually rights tied to their humanity, or, you're making the case that those people aren't actually humans.

Neither of those ideas is compatible with liberty.

The Philosophy of Liberty (video)


Why Government Doesn't Work (pdf)

[jbauer]

Ouch, that's too close to home. I have kin living there.

You know, these days about twice a week I turn to the wife and ask "Is it time to leave the country yet?"

You could go to Syria!!! I bet they'll take you lol. "sarcasm"