We are a Sanctuary City

We are a Sanctuary City

This evening, hundreds gathered outside City Hall to protest recent actions by the Trump administration on immigration.   (See Mary Lupien’s video.)

As we’ve written, (see below) in 1986 Rochestarians gathered in support of refugees from El Salvador who had made their way to Rochester. Their plight would lead to the declaration that Rochester is a “city of sanctuaries.”

sanctaury

Photo: Alaina Wainwright

Those hundreds on the steps of City Hall reaffirmed Rochester’s commitment to refugees and immigrants. The banner — recognizing the social justice work done in 1986 — says it all.
For more pictures

 

Remember, Rochester is a “city of sanctuaries.”

President Cruz will “end sanctuary cities.” Where will that leave us?

Trump denounces Sanctuary Cities. Where will that leave Rochester?

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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