Donald Trump the leading Republican candidate for President has repeatedly said he wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Now he leading the charge to block the Obama Administration’s plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in America telling CNBC

“We cannot let them into this country, period,”

And going so far as to say back in September

“I’m putting people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration, that if I win, they’re going back.”

Trump’s campaign slogan is Make America Great Again and I can only wonder what it is about building a wall to isolate yourself and turning your back on victims of terror that makes you great?

Five days after 129 Parisians were killed in a terror attack last Friday, stoking a backlash against refugees and immigrants in France and other parts of the world, French President François Hollande said Wednesday that he remains committed to taking in 30,000 refugees during the next two years.

“Some have wanted to link the influx of refugees to Friday’s acts of terror,” President Hollande said in a speech to French mayors. But, he added, France should honor its duty to offer protection to refugees fleeing countries like Syria and Iraq “because they are being tormented by the same who have attacked us.”

Hollande added that he is committed to ensuring both “humanity for refugees and protection of the French people.” It was with those words Hollande showed the world how you really stand tall against terrorism. Not by running scared and locking yourself off from everyone. But rather by announcing to the world through your actions, not tough talk, that you will not be cowered into turning your back on the defenseless, rather you will carry on and stand up for what is right. That while they may come from the same place you will not look at the face of those who cry out for help and assume that it is the same face as those who attacked you. And while you will remain vigilant you will offer sanctuary to those that have been terrorized by the same hand that terrorized you.

I guess at the end of the day it really isn’t surprising that one of our country’s most iconic symbols the Statue of Liberty with these words mounted inside the lower level of her pedestal

“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!”

was a gift from France.