"Oliver said: “Every generation has had its own ugly reaction to refugees, whether they are the Irish, the Vietnamese, the Cubans, or the Haitians. And those fears have been broadly unfounded. In fact, there was only one time in American history where the fear of refugees wiping everyone out did actually come true, and we’ll all be sitting around a table celebrating it on Thursday.”
Thursday is Thanksgiving, which has dark roots in the massacre of indigenous Americans by European colonists in the seventeenth century.
Fox host Jesse Watters responded by suggesting Oliver should thank the Pilgrims, because “without the Pilgrims bringing religious freedom here, we wouldn't be bringing in all of these Muslims, right?” Dana Perino chirped in: “It is always interesting to listen to a condescending British person tell you about colonialism, because the British were so much better at colonialism than the Pilgrims.”"
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/11/25/john-oliver-fox-news-isis-syrian-refugees_n_8647438.html
Does Jesse Watters believe the Pilgrims brought religious freedom to America? I thought they were fleeing the dilution of their religious/cultural identity and their numbers in the Netherlands. Did I miss the Moslems, Jews, Catholics, Anglicans and atheists on the Mayflower who were all planning to live in peace and harmony in America?
And poor old Dana Perino doesn't seem to know that the pilgrims are an example of a group of British (actually English) colonists. So she makes a distinction without a difference, and perhaps demonstrates the reason folks seem condescending to her. They will, if that is the kind of thought knocking around inside her noggin.
Not that I agree with Oliver on refugees. But surely these folks can do better in learning America's story.
"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic." - Mayflower Compact, as recalled.
The first American model of religious liberty was attempted in the English colony of Maryland, unsuccessfully. Only Pennsylvania managed to establish and preserve religious liberty until the bill of rights was written.
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