In light of the recent attacks across the world, ranging from the calculated terrorism in Paris to suicide bombers in Beirut and now hostages in Mali, it is natural that Americans should be feeling fearful and apprehensive.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have been on high alert for other terrorist threats. After these more recent attacks, we are on the alert again, because ISIL is now terrorizing outside of the Middle East, and somehow that makes us more concerned.
It shouldn’t, because we should be paying attention to the whole world. To African countries struggling to survive, to Brazilian pollution, to everything else. To Syria and the awful, terrible war that is happening there. The millions of lives being displaced.
I understand where fear comes in that we don’t want to let the disease of war and famine into our country, but I think it is important to remember, too, that America has always been a country that accepts immigrants. The people who settled this country were immigrants themselves. The Irish, the Germans, the Dutch, the British colonists who first settled here.
There are some people in this country against refugees, screaming that we should take care of our own first. It’s interesting, because usually they are the same people that vote in politicians to cut funding and benefits for those here.
The Syrian refugees seeking a better life have seen literal hell. They’ve risked absolutely everything to escape war. Their lives, their health, their possessions. Imagine thousands upon thousands of ordinary families fleeing a crisis they have no control over. Small children. Widows. Men who have always, according to their culture, tried to provide for their families, and now cannot.
If America were to accept these refugees, and we should, we need to remember that they are not all reflective of the war. Who really wants war? No one. When they come, they come knowing that even a life in a shack on a street in New York City is better than sitting in the mud with no prospect of earning money, bombs around you, and being torn in three different directions to pick a side or die.
We need to help those in need. We need to help them find new meaning in their lives. I want to protect America, but in all honesty, accepting those refugees can’t be worse than trying to be on the lookout, every single day, for a mass shooter, for hierarchy brutality, for racist and angry and confused Americans. We’re already threatened. We’re already targeted. In all likelihood, even if we didn’t accept the Syrian refugees, the people who want to hurt us would somehow find a way in our country. They are probably already targeting us. There have even been other speculations on the internet that they are going to hit us on Black Friday, where mass crowds of people will be out and about and easier to target.
So let’s help those families. Be brave, be compassionate, and be human, please. They are people, who have suffered long enough.
