Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
Trump’s words have unleashed an onslaught of the KKK and neo-Nazi hate groups in the city, including the Blood Tribe, a hooded group of swastika-flag-carrying terrorists. We have had countless bomb threats called into our schools, universities, and government offices, and we have had death threats made against local employers. This is fascism, and it is the centerpiece of the Trump campaign.
On behalf of myself, my family, and many colleagues, neighbors, and friends in Springfield, we want to assure our Haitian neighbors that we stand with you against these attacks, and that we deeply regret the trauma they have caused you and your families. We want to speak out on your behalf to restore your human dignity and ours. The threats, harassment, and dehumanization you are experiencing is evil and wrong.
Immigration is a deeply American story. Other than Native Americans, we were all foreigners in a new land who often came here to escape famine, political and religious persecution, war, and poverty. Today’s Haitian immigrants share a similar story. They came to this country legally, some as long as 30 years ago, many of them seeking asylum from a nation gripped for centuries by imperialism, slavery, corruption, violence, and poverty. Some have come to Springfield to seek the same American dream we sought, and they have become contributing members of our community. This vile slander about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, finds its roots in that long lineage of fear and nativism that many of our ancestors endured. My ancestors arrived here during the Irish Potato Famine of the 1850s. They were not treated well. We owe it to our own ancestors to do better, to lift people up, and not tear them down.
In 1886, France gifted to the United States the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of our freedom and independence. It captures this nation’s highest aspirations. At the statue’s base is the bronze plaque inscribed with the sonnet written by Emma Lazarus entitled “The New Colossus.” It frames the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of hope and opportunity for immigrants and as a reminder of our national identity as a refuge for humanity. It reads in part:
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-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
There could be no greater expression of our values as a nation and our obligations as a people. We can and must do better in wrapping our arms around these new American arrivals and helping them achieve their dreams. We each have a part to play in holding up that lamp — that beacon of freedom and opportunity — beside that golden door.
As residents and leaders in this midwestern city, we believe in our country’s highest aspiration and not its lowest fears and bigotry. To our Haitian neighbors, you are welcome here and belong here. You are we — and we are all dreamers in this land.
William R. Groves is a graduate of the Ohio State University College of Law and practiced law in Springfield, Ohio, for over four decades. His clients included the Springfield City Schools, Clark County Sheriff’s office, the City of Springfield, the City of Xenia, and many other local businesses and educational institutions. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Ohio State Bar Association, and was President or on the board of directors of many charitable and civic organizations in Springfield including United Way and Rocking Horse Center. In his spare time, he was the founding coach of the Springfield High School Mock Trial Team that has gone on to win numerous state championships.
About the Author