Connecticut’s governor earned a national award for “courage” for standing for Syrian refugees when much of the country turned its back on them.
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced Monday that the annual honor — the “John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award” — will go to Gov. Dannel P, Malloy during a May 1 ceremony at the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
In a release, the organization credited Malloy for arranging for a family fleeing the civil war in Syria to settle in New Haven at a time when other governors were barring the door amid an anti-immgrant frenzy.
“As half of U.S. governors, leading presidential candidates and countless others across the country voice support for a ban on Syrian refugees from entering the United States, Governor Dannel Malloy took a stand against the hateful, xenophobic rhetoric,” a release quoted JFK grandson Jack Schlossberg, who’ll present the award, as saying. “In doing so, he put principles above politics and upheld my grandfather’s vision of America that, he said, ‘has always served as a lantern in the dark for those who love freedom but are persecuted, in misery, or in need.’”
Click on the above video watch Malloy announce his decision to welcome the refugees. Read more about the Syrian resettlement here and here.