{"id":4337,"date":"2017-01-30T10:36:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T10:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/?p=4337"},"modified":"2017-01-31T17:52:47","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T17:52:47","slug":"because-silence-is-not-an-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/because-silence-is-not-an-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Because Silence is Not an Option"},"content":{"rendered":"<style media=\"screen\">\nblockquote {\n    padding: 0 0 10px 10px !important;\n    margin-top: -5px !important;\n    margin-bottom: 15px !important;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p>It is hard to know what to say, but say something we must.<\/p>\n<p>America is a great country &#8211; full of fantastic people with boundless energy and creativity. It is also an immigrant nation &#8211; born of wave upon wave of immigrants and refugees from around the world. Immigration and acceptance is the very source of its vigor, the lifeblood of the nation. As we might put it in the technology industry, immigration is our differentiation.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The United States remain exceptional only through renewal, and celebration of the capacity of those that have come to find succour in, and celebrate, its commonwealth. Immigrants work hard and create wealth. Immigrants are what enables a continual rebirth of freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With conquering limbs astride from land to land;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!&#8221; cries she<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With silent lips. &#8220;Give me your tired, your poor,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I lift my lamp beside the golden door!<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We must today fight a brazen foe, one who for whatever reason does not comprehend the foundation of our nation\u2019s greatness. The US Constitution is not a perfect document, but it does have a certain power. Its First Amendment is currently under direct and imminent threat:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When news came in Friday of the proposed immigration ban on citizens of certain nations, with unfortunate and obvious religious overtones, we were horrified. As the weekend has gone on and it has became more and more clear that the policy and its implementation were intended to create chaos and sow fear and mistrust it became evident we needed to say something. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Silence is not an option.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@jeffiel\/the-immigration-ban-is-fundamentally-un-american-2ca10bf12836#.l4q7f44sx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeff Lawson<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> pointed in an excellent post this weekend <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@jeffiel\/the-immigration-ban-is-fundamentally-un-american-2ca10bf12836#.l4q7f44sx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The immigration ban is fundamentally UnAmerican<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Globally there are over 60,000,000 displaced people, more than any time since World War II. And today we turned our backs on them.<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s important at the same time to remember that this is not about the safety of the United States population, in spite of what\u2019s claimed. As CNN <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CNN\/status\/825885747890761732\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">put it<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earlier: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How many terror attacks have refugees carried out in the United States? Not a single one since Refugee Act of 1980.<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what now? Lawson provided some clear actions to take:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, take action. <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/cqrcengage.com\/theirc\/app\/make-a-call?0&amp;engagementId=278053\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tell Congress<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that you oppose Trump\u2019s ban on refugees. <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rescue.org\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Donate<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the IRC\u2019s emergency fund to help protect resettled refugees or <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the ACLU<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which is already <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/blog\/speak-freely\/aclu-and-other-groups-challenge-trump-immigration-ban-after-refugees-detained\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">challenging<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the immigration ban. Share <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/27\/opinion\/donald-trumps-un-american-refugee-policy.html?mtrref=undefined&amp;assetType=opinion\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this NYTimes Op-Ed<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by IRC CEO David Miliband to spread the word.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a tech leader and public CEO, I\u2019m often advised to stay apolitical. But this isn\u2019t politics, I believe this is a matter of objective right and wrong. Staying silent doesn\u2019t feel like leadership to me. I encourage other leaders to consider the cost of silence.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/avc.com\/2017\/01\/make-america-hate-again\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">post<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Fred Wilson is another important statement.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We at RedMonk cannot agree strongly enough. Silence has a cost, measured in the quality of the lives of the people that need and deserve our help most. We must make our voices heard. We need to march, we need to make public statements, we need to call, and call out, our elected representatives. RedMonk the company will be making contributions to the ACLU and IRC. Our employees may choose to do so personally as well. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We at RedMonk stand with people of all genders, races, colours and creeds. Muslims are our brothers and sisters, and refugees from all conflicts need our help. We are all immigrants here, and a threat to one of us is a threat to all of us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a small company with many clients that have government contracts it would be easier for us to say nothing, hoping the good people we work with do the right thing. But silence, as we have said, has a cost. To us, and to those our silence would fail. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 2002, our mission has been to help companies large and small do the right thing, however best we are able. Today is no different. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For those looking for silver linings, the technology industry finally seems to have woken up. With luck, this has reminded all of us of the world around us and our power to influence it for the better. More, it is a chance for all of us to feel proud of our industry again as we move forward. We must listen to the better angels of our nature and use the power of our industry, our skills and our dedication to fight for what is right. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a sermon delivered in Selma, AL on the 8th of March, 1965, some three years before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King said:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The men and women of RedMonk will stand and be counted. We hope all of you reading this will as well. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is who we are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Governor, Co-founder<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stephen O\u2019Grady, Co-founder<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is hard to know what to say, but say something we must. America is a great country &#8211; full of fantastic people with boundless energy and creativity. It is also an immigrant nation &#8211; born of wave upon wave of immigrants and refugees from around the world. Immigration and acceptance is the very source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9wfjh-17X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/jgovernor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}