WORLD REFUGEE DAY

One month later I went to the “World Refugee Day” celebration at City Hall. Mayor Kenney read his prepared remarks about the value of refugees and the challenges they face both in the U.S. and globally. Then the glasses came off and he gave a remarkable extemporaneous speech which seemed influenced by the Trump administration’s actions at the southern border.

“I would just like to say, my own history in this country is one of a refugee, not me personally — but my ancestors...”

“Let’s stick together as a city so we can get through this terrible time in our country.”

Because they were being starved out of their homes and farms, they decided they had no other choice but to leave. They got on what were called coffin ships and they sailed across a terrible ocean in the northern part of the Atlantic — many of them died in the crossing and were buried at sea. When we got to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, we literally crawled off those coffin ships and went on with our lives. We had no papers or documents — Ellis Island didn’t open until 1892 and most of us came here in the 1840’s.

We were told: ‘Get the hell out — we don’t want you here — your presence here is a plot from the Catholic Church and the Pope to take over America!’. Sounds similar to what they say about Muslims today; these know-nothings were the Donald Trump followers of the 1840’s; they felt it was necessary to harass, to start riots, to burn down churches — two were burned to the ground in Philadelphia: one in Kensington (St. Michael’s) and the other in Old City (St. Augustine’s). People were going after St. Philip Neri in Queen Village but they were fought back by the Pennsylvania Guard and twelve people lost their lives. I tell you these stories because when you are a ‘hyphenated American’ and you’ve been here for a long time you sometimes forget your heritage and history. You have to remember your history so you don’t push other people away who are trying something similar to what your own ancestors did, and that goes for every ethnic group in this country. My religion, and all others if I’m not mistaken, teaches us to be kind to the stranger, to feed the hungry, to visit those in prison. And I can assure you that the people who are directly involved in this debacle — in this terror we’re seeing in Texas with these babies and baby prisons — they are going to answer to God when they present themselves for entry into heaven and He’s not going to be happy at all. They may have the capacity to brush this off and lie their way out of it, but there’s no lying in heaven — they will have to answer for themselves.

So God bless you all — let’s stick together as a city so we can get through this terrible time in our country.”

CITY COUNCILWOMAN CHERELLE PARKER:

As part of the Olney Advocates photo essay I had the privilege to interview City Councilwoman Cherelle Parker. Like Mayor Kenney, she has tremendous compassion for people and it shows in her leadership. And she has great respect for Mayor Kenney: “What we’re seeing in this nation is a desire for authenticity which is what you get and what you feel when you hear Mayor Kenney. He tells the truth knowing that it’s going to make some people uncomfortable when you speak truth to power!”