"we like other nations, have to have a set of laws and policies that protect our citizens and taxpayers from more than just "terror"."

I do agree with you on that Bill. The point I was trying to make is, that the arguement you just made was the same one people were making at the time of the St.Louis incident.   I don't think any of us today have enough information on the reasons why people from Mexico, South America and other countries are coming to this country. There are brutal governments out there, and unless they produced oil our country seems to ignore these infractions of human rights.

Also, back to the St. Louis incident, the horror of Kristallnacht was fresh in everyone's mind at the time, and clearly the ugly nature of the Nazi's were known, I think that people were still in the "denial" stage if you will, or at the very least the idea of remaining neutral was in the mind of many.   America has a history of oppressing immigrants, be it the Chinese, Irish, Italians or whatever group was coming into this country at the time. In hindsight the denial from this country to the passengers on the St. Louis is all the more horrific knowing what transpired, but at the time could anyone say for certain what the fate of those passengers would be - especially since they ended up in countries that were not occupied by the Nazi's?

Again, the only point I was trying to make is that we should not lull ourselves into thinking that everything has improved and situations like this could not occur again. They can and they will. While the situation in Suffern may or may not be a case of religious discrimination, there is plenty of religious and racial discrimination going on around us.

I guess this has turned into a WFDU discussion group, but anyone can step in at anytime to tell Bill and I that we are full of crap. We are used to it!! :)