By denying the refugees of the St. Louis entry, America hid behind the veil of national borders to avoid doing what was right; only when it set aside excuses could it act in accord with simple morality. America must always be committed to the spirit which animated it during the Second World War, must always serve as the final guarantor of human rights for all, their national identity or distance from our own shores irrelevant. For anything less would be a betrayal of the republic at its best and of the country’s finest traditions. Justice, liberty, and equality before the law are the core of the American ethos, and to allow them to be denied to anyone, in any nation, runs counter to all that Americans
By denying the refugees of the St. Louis entry, America hid behind the veil of national borders to avoid doing what was right; only when it set aside excuses could it act in accord with simple morality. America must always be committed to the spirit which animated it during the Second World War, must always serve as the final guarantor of human rights for all, their national identity or distance from our own shores irrelevant. For anything less would be a betrayal of the republic at its best and of the country’s finest traditions. Justice, liberty, and equality before the law are the core of the American ethos, and to allow them to be denied to anyone, in any nation, runs counter to all that Americans