Jimmy Aldaoud RIP

The Statue of Liberty — In the harbor at New York City
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

“The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

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“Here’s an unusual story: Moderate French Muslims vs. the radical Islamists”

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“Spot the news here: First openly gay presidential candidate in ‘Arab’ or ‘Muslim’ world?”

The likelihood that Israel would ever lay claim to any part of Jordan seems to me not merely vanishingly small but absolutely zero. It just won’t happen. Still, this story reflects widespread Jordanian distrust of Israel, which does lay claim to Palestinian territories on the basis of the fact that Jews lived in them anciently:

“Jordan halts film that refers to historical Jewish presence”

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This very, very sad story is one at which all Americans should be outraged and of which our government should be heartily ashamed:

“Jimmy Aldaoud, Dead”

“Deportation of a Chaldean Christian to Iraq, and where he died, gets some decent coverage”

“Jimmy Al-Daoud’s diabetes didn’t kill him — being deported to Iraq by Trump’s ICE did”

“A disastrous deportation: why the Jimmy Aldaoud case should trouble us all”

It’s also a story that illustrates very well one of the reasons for my deep reluctance to grant more power or authority to the State than is absolutely necessary. I do not trust government officials to possess greater wisdom or goodness or compassion or competence than ordinary mortals. On the contrary, since the government is uniquely entrusted with the legal right to coerce, and since, even in a democracy, it is only minimually and periodically accountable to a crude majority of citizens and, in the specific case of unelected bureaucracies and unelected bureaucrats, even less accountable than that, I expect it to do considerable harm and to act irresponsibly.

I’ve always liked these early words of one of the great figures in the history of the American conservative movement, and a personal hero of mine:

“I will not cede more power to the state. I will not willingly cede more power to anyone, not to the state, not to General Motors, not to the CIO. I will hoard my power like a miser, resisting every effort to drain it away from me. I will then use my power, as I see fit. I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth. That is a program of sorts, is it not? It is certainly program enough to keep conservatives busy, and Liberals at bay. And the nation free.” (William F. Buckley, Jr.)

Posted from St. George, Utah