X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

George R.R. Martin Has the Perfect Response for Everyone Who Has a Problem with Syrian Refugees

Read his powerful message urging the U.S. to "Let them in"

unnamed.jpg
Sadie Gennis

Game of Thronesauthor George R.R. Martin shared a message to those who are against welcoming Syrian refugees in the United Sates.

After quoting Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus," the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, Martin explains on his Livejournal that "Lady Liberty and the words on her base represent the best of what this nation of immigrants is all about."

Game of Thrones novels will have a "bittersweet" end

"One has to wonder if all the governors (including our own governor here in New Mexico, I am ashamed to say) and congressmen voting to keep out the Syrian refugees have ever visited the Statue, or read the words on her base. If so, they surely failed to understand them."

"Emma Lazarus had it right. Donald Trump and thirty-one governors have it wrong, wrong, wrong," Martin continued. "The Syrian refugees are as much victims of ISIS as the dead in France. Let them in. Santa Fe, at least, will welcome them."

One commenter wrote, "that a writer so good at teasing out the moral complexity of complicated situations in his books has such a simplistic view of a real world issue, where real lives are at steak. Surprised and disappointed."

Martin responded, "Real lives are at stake. The lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees driven from their homes by war. Many of them women and children. That's the whole point. There's a moral imperative here."

The author continued to reply to many of the comments, defending his views and shutting down the haters.