<div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif">Good Morning:</font><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">This is a slightly longer version of the column that appeared in the Daily News yesterday. It will be published in the Sandpoint Reader next Thursday. The full version is attached.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">To those who insist that we always follow the law in immigration matters, I side with Charles Dickens' Mr. Bumble who said that sometimes "the law is an ass."</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">My partner Cheryl Miller-Arndt and I will be doing the service at the Unitarian Church on this topic on September 24 at 10 AM.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">On September 30 the Latah Human Rights Task Force will have a table at the Farmer's Market and I invite you to check it out.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">In addition, the Moscow Human Rights Commission holding several more events on the topic of refugees.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><u>Thursday September 21st 7:00</u></b>-8:30 pm Great Room 1912 Center, Moscow</font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="background-color:yellow">Speaker: </span><span style="background-color:yellow">Refugee Resettlement: Policies and Issues</span><br>Join us for a discussion of refugee resettlement issues and policies. Our speaker is Slobodanka Hodzic, Program Director of the Agency for New Americans in Boise.</font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><u>Saturday September 30th 7:00-9:00 </u></b>pm Great Room 1912 Center, Moscow<br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="background-color:yellow">Racial Equality and Inclusive Communities Potluck Dinner</span><br>Join us for the conclusion of Racial Equality and Inclusive Communities Month for a city potluck dinner. Bring your favorite dish to share, or just bring yourself. All are welcome. Please label you dish and to be as inclusive as possible please no pork dishes. Also, try to avoid nut dishes due to possible allergies.</font></div></div></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">Please try to attend and support this efforts,</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">nfg</font></div><div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">Our Sanctuary Cities have a Sacred History<span></span></font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"> The
people of the Ancient Middle East practiced radical hospitality, and the
Israelites were no exception: “When a stranger sojourns in your land, you shall
not do him wrong. The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the
native among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:33-34). <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">The medieval
church offered asylum to all those who sought it, as long as criminals
confessed their sins. They were given forty days to decide whether to stand
trial or go into permanent exile. Today churches are bringing back this
Judeo-Christian tradition, and about 800 of them are now offering refuge to
those who need protection.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><a name="_Hlk492729855"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">This year immigration rights
activist Jeanette Vizguerra was honored by <i>Time
</i>magazine as one of the world’s most influential people. She has lived and
worked in the U.S. for 20 years, but she is undocumented. In February, facing
deportation, she was offered sanctuary in Denver’s First Unitarian Church.<span></span></font></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">On May 5, with the aid of Colorado’s three
Democratic Representatives, Vizguerra was given a two-year “stay of removal,” and
she has now been reunited with her children and grandchildren. These Democrats
were also instrumental in the release of</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"> Arturo Hernandez, who had lived in the same
church for nine months.<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">Javier Flores’ only crimes are that he is
undocumented and has a 10-year-old DUI conviction. He has been living in
Philadelphia’s </span><a href="https://www.epaumc.org/news-information/2016/11/phila-church-offers-sanctuary-to-shield-father-from-deportation/" target="_blank"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration-line:none">Arch Street United Methodist Church for almost a year.
Flores, a father of three, works on church projects from within the safety of
church. </span></a><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"> Flores said that “</span><strong><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;font-weight:normal">you have to keep fighting and I'm doing this for my kids.” </span></strong><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><span></span></span></font></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><strong><span style="color:black;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">The Shadow Rock United
Church of Christ in Phoenix is temporary home to Sixto Paz and Ismael Delgado.
Paz, father of four American citizens (two are college graduates), has lived
and worked in the U.S. since 1985, and he has paid taxes 28 of those years. He
says that he has a clean record and that he is “working hard to do the best.” <span></span></font></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;background:rgb(254,254,254)"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Immigration
authorities have a legal right to enter any building to arrest people, but they
have avoided churches. Cornell law professor </span><a href="http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/faculty/bio_stephen_yale-loehr.cfm" target="_blank"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;text-decoration-line:none">Stephen Yale-Loehr</span></a><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"> </span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">explains:</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"> “I think for publicity reasons, immigration officers
do not like to go into churches.” Sacred sanctuary principles obviously still
have their force. <span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif">The contemporary sanctuary movement is different
from the medieval requirement of confession of sins and a deadline for a trial.
The latter point is moot because, as far as I know, these churches do not
harbor felons. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif">Nevertheless, pastors who refuse to hand over the undocumented
are committing acts of civil disobedience. They believe that a greater harm is
done if immigrant families are broken up because of deportation. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif">These Christians believe that such an exile would
violate the biblical injunction to love and comfort the foreigner. Quite apart
from religious beliefs, I agree with Charles Dicken’s Mr. Bumble who said that sometimes
“the law is an ass.” <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Secular authorities in the 600-plus sanctuary cities
and counties have at least two arguments for non-compliance. First, immigration
enforcement is a federal prerogative, while local police are charged with
enforcing their own laws. Second, local police contend that if they do a general
dragnet of the undocumented, they will lose important sources of intelligence
that allow them to arrest immigrant felons in their midst.</span><span style="line-height:150%"> <span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">The charge that sanctuary cities have higher crime
rates is just another example of the Trump Administration’s “fake news.”</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;letter-spacing:0.1pt"> The fact is, according
to UC San Diego professor Tom K. Wong, “crime is significantly lower in
sanctuary counties compared to non-sanctuary counties.”</span><span style="line-height:150%"><span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;letter-spacing:0.1pt">State and local officials are confident that the courts
will back them up, and on April 25,
Trump’s executive order threatening to withhold federal funds from sanctuary
cities was blocked. Federal Judge William Orrick ruled that “only Congress can</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"> place such
conditions on spending.”<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">On August 30, a district court judge ruled that a
Texas law imposing fines on local authorities who refuse to cooperate with
immigration agents may well be unconstitutional. </span><span style="line-height:150%;color:rgb(17,17,17);background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">He wrote that the plaintiffs had provided “overwhelming and ample
evidence that cooperating with immigration officials will erode public trust
and make many communities and neighborhoods less safe.”</span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif">In conclusion, it is important to note that the
Declaration of Independence follows Leviticus in making no difference between
the “native” and the “non-native.” Its
central principle is a philosophical statement about human nature in general:
namely, that all human beings regardless of origin have an “inalienable right
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the
University of Idaho for 31 years. Read his recent columns at </span><a href="http://www.sandpointreader.com/"><span style="line-height:150%;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">www.sandpointreader.com</span></a><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"> under Columns. </span></font></p></div><div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><div><font face="georgia, serif">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. <br><br>-Greek proverb</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your
own understanding!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
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