I applaud Maria Palmer's courage in discussing the continuing lack of compassion for immigrants by too many of our politicians and public figures (CHN Nov. 18).

When teaching at a public university in New Jersey I would take my undergraduates to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in downtown New York City so they could learn about the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. They also learned about the anti-Semitism that was part of the U.S. State Department policies: Our country accepted fewer than 1,000 European refugees while 6 million Jews died in death camps and killing fields of Europe.

Exclusion, ethnocentrism, racism, and fear of immigrants all combine to exclude those who need refuge and negate the welcoming words on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. ... I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Peter Stein

Chapel Hill