Posted on 02/06/2017 10:55:23 AM PST by nwrep
A personal statement issued today by the music director emeritus of the Cleveland Orchestra Christoph von Dohnanyi :
Four men in my family were executed by the Nazis. Hans von Dohnanyi, my father, honored in Yad Vashem, was killed in the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen short before the Second World War ended. At the same time the world-renowned theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, brother of my mother, my godfather, was executed in the concentration camp Flossenbürg. In 1930 Bonhoeffer began his studies in New York City at the Union Theological Seminary and learned to love and admire the United States of America.
I know today he would be extremely unhappy observing a tendency of religious intolerance in the country he once admired so much for its freedom and acceptance. He never could have imagined that this strong, great nation would find itself in the political and ethical crisis it now faces. A nation’s heart may race when it feels threatened, fearful, or even terrified. But this heart, no matter how “devout”, should never tolerate walls nor turn away those seeking help. People died at the Berlin Wall. Many people died in Hitler’s concentration camps for their unwavering beliefs in the value of their ethics and in their fellow man. These beliefs are now endangered in many Western nations including, sadly enough, the USA. This is unimaginable.
Also unimaginable, for instance: I should have a U.S. visa and move through passport control without incident. Next to me another musician would have the same kind of visa. He would be detained because he is a Muslim from Iran. He would be sent back after hours of interrogation. But Christians would be excepted from these new regulations. (By the way, Bonhoeffer – a fervent and prominent supporter of ecumenical Christianity – would have strongly opposed that.) Rising walls will unfortunately keep many talented, well educated and good people away from travelling to the U.S. this might be sad. But by far more relevant remains the question, whether walls will make anybody safer.
We all know, fear and aggression produce nothing but fear and aggression.What kind of world are we living in? A world of “Texas first!”, “California first!”, Asia, Africa, America, Europe or Australia “first!”? Or do we live in a world that puts human dignity, humanity, fearlessness and compassion above everything else? In it’s great days our much-loved USA was such a country.There is hope that the current political turmoil in the U.S. will, in fact, harm the extreme-rightwing parties in some upcoming, important European elections.(c) Christoph von Dohnanyi
SHUT UP AND GO BACK TO BEETHOVEN
These asshats pontificate but, without a travel ban, the nazis could have infested our country too.
What an idiot.
Because of a pause of a few months, this jackass invokes the Nazis.
Japan and China lets no one in. I await his boo hoo opus on that.
WHO?
A Christian from Iran would have been denied just the same as a muzzie, you stupid shit.
Muzzies fought for the Nazis.
Wow, this guy is really upset about the Obama administration deliberately excluding Middle Eastern Christian refugees after arming and funding the jihadis who were committing genocide on them.
That is what he’s writing about, isn’t it?
He tries to use the Nazis killing of his relatives as his moral authority. Apparently he does not see the irony. Does this man not realize that the very people Trump is trying to keep out, are the same people who would execute him, his friends and all his relatives, point blank, if they ever have the chance?................
This clueless joke doesn't realize that this Muslim, be he musician or what ever, wants him D.E.A.D.
“In it’s great days our much-loved USA was such a country.”
As a foreigner, YOUR idea of what makes America GREAT and OUR idea of what makes us great...differ greatly!
Shut Up and Play the Music Put in Front of You!
You got both the title and the author wrong.
How does something like that happen?
WHO?
How about this for an alternative headline? “Retired Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney issues statement in support of Trump EO?”
Is every Democrat in the country going to cited before this is over?
His family weren’t terrorists that were trying to immigrate, but should have been admitted as seeking political asylum. All of these people are tring to equate Trump with the Holocaust, and unvetted Muslims with Jews. It doesn’t work.
What kind of world are we living in?
well, maybe a world where the CIA intercepted intelligence that ISIS plans to infiltrate combatants into the US among migrants and the President just “may” know even more than was publicly reported
A world where venues such as the Cleveland Symphony conducted by a Jewish orchestra director would be a prime venue, such as the concert by the American band in Paris, where photos of the mutilated bodies of tortured murdered concert goers were never released to avoid inflaming the public
Please do not cry me a river about Jews fleeing nazi Germany to compare radical military age muslim men fleeing the hells they have created in Somalia Sudan Syria Yemen and Iraq
He’s a moron.
What a maroon. It just goes to show that no matter how good a name you make for yourself, some descendant can always screw it up in the future.
What a bassoon !
A nice third grade essay.
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