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The commemorative voyage of the sloop Restauration from Stavanger, Norway, to New York City, ended today, with its docking at Pier 16 a few hours ago.
Luke Maurer and I were present to witness its departure from Stavanger back on July 4, the same date that the original Restauration left Stavanger in 1825, marking the start of the organized immigration of Norwegians to the USA two hundred years ago.
The original ship made it safely to New York Harbor on October 9, 1825, and discharged the 53 people on board, including the baby born during the voyage. However, the ship was seized by the port authorities, and its captain arrested, because the number of passengers had exceeded the maximum allowed for a vessel its size. The end of that story was happy; for reasons that nobody seems to know for sure, the U.S. president, John Quincy Adams, ordered the release of the ship and its captain, and cancellation of the heavy fine that had been imposed. (Here's Henry Cadbury's summary of the story, including Quakers' involvement.)
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This commemorative voyage and its safe arrival in New York City are bright spots in the day's news. The history of Norwegian migration is important to me, at least in part because I'm part of that history. My Maurer ancestors seem to have come from Germany via Denmark, with the original Johan Fredrik Maurer arriving in Norway from Denmark around 1840. Some of his descendants are among the million or so Norwegians who emigrated to other countries in the years after the Restauration. Eventually I became one of the Norwegian immigrants to the USA.
It seems to me that the Norwegian and USA organizers of the 1825-2025 Restauration commemorations have conducted themselves with admirable diplomacy. But, in my private opinion, the story of President John Quincy Adams pardoning the captain and restoring the vessel to its owners has special meaning in this MAGA era. Back in 1825, it must have been assumed at the highest levels that immigrants were good news. In our own time, most economists agree.
I admire the strength and courage of those Norwegian pioneers of 1825. They endured a lot in their search for economic opportunity and religious freedom. On the other hand, there definitely were incentives to leave their homeland; the Norway of two centuries ago was one of the poorer countries of Europe, with no hint of the prosperity to come in the mid-20th century, and major restrictions on religious dissidents. Today's immigrants coming to the USA from a variety of places, also propelled by hopes of freedom and opportunity (or just plain survival!), and often ready to endure great risks to get here, are no less admirable. And in view of the USA's stagnating demographics, no less needed.
Benjamin Wittes on U.S. strikes on vessels off Venezuela: "When I say murder here, I am not speaking in hyperbole or using the term in some colloquial sense."
Several Quaker organizations have united to offer us an urgent statement on genocide in the Gaza Strip, and are asking Friends churches, meetings, and other organizations to endorse the statement. Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends did so at our fall gathering this past weekend, even as we followed the first hints of a possible cease-fire.
During the fall gathering, some of us had an opportunity to see this video from B'Tselem on "Our Genocide."
And some words about emergency relief plans for when the cease-fire begins, from the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher.
A simple prayer for dark times: Micah Bales on the Lord's Prayer, its message, and its misuse.
For us, as the church of Jesus Christ, the greatest danger right now is that we fail to see clearly that this government is weaponizing our own Christian tradition against the people. They are quoting the Bible to justify their policies. But this is all a smokescreen. When they mock immigrants and use children as pawns, that’s not the gospel. That’s not “on earth as it is in heaven.”
This is surely a rerun, but this may be my very favorite Albert Collins clip. "Same Old Thing."
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