America. What does that word mean to you? For my grandfather, it meant refuge. He fled Belgium in 1945 after being captured by the Nazi’s and forced to work for the SS as a baker. In the daylight hours, he made bread for Hitler’s soldiers and in the dark of night, he smuggled flour to concentration camps so the Jews could survive. One day, a small group of rebels came to him and offered a path to freedom and he took it. He fled via the underground network and hid in the basement of my great grandparents for years, which is where he met my grandmother. Many years later, they were able to settle down in the United States and raise a family together, free from the tyranny of ruthless men. If not for the United States sheltering refugees after WWII, I would not be here writing this today.
Today, I live in a country that my grandfather would not recognize. Those who profess to be the “proud defenders of freedom” cower at the mere thought of any kind of Muslim, regardless of the fact that most are just like you and me. They believe that grandmothers, widows and children pose a great threat to the United States because of the acts of terror committed by ISIS, and because they fear anything that is different or strange.
The very people fleeing these terrorists with nothing but the clothes on their backs, are somehow labeled as a threat by these so called patriots simply because of their religion, yet Christians armed to the teeth open carry assault rifles in grocery stores everyday. It’s a strange and baffling logic that defies common sense.
When nationalized extremists turn away people who suffer at the hands of our enemies despite all statistics that show they are no threat, it shows our enemies that Americans will submit to fear tactics and emboldens them. The very goal of terrorism is to scare us into submission and and by refusing refugees, we are succumbing to the deep desires of terrorists who can now call America a nation of cowards and sheep.
How can we look ourselves in the mirror and call ourselves brave while we allow the suffering of children? These families have nowhere to go because of the same terrorists we fear are killing them as well. The cities they live in are nothing more than burned out hovels littered with rubble and dead relatives. How can we call ourselves a Christian nation if we reject the teachings of Christ because we are too scared to do the right thing? Are we really so afraid of foreigners that we let helpless children die on lifeboats trying to flee the horrors of war? How then, can we call ourselves the home of the brave?
According to the U.N.,half of all refugees seeking asylum are young children who now have no home, no shelter, no school and most have lost both friends and family in violent acts of civil war. These children are innocent beings who now must grow up too fast in a confusing and frightening world. What if it was your child or your family in this situation? How would you feel if you were turned away and forced to return to a war zone with your family in tow? It seems t me that the right thing to do, the moral thing, would be to help these people. Unfortunately, these people are met with fear, hatred and bigotry.
I myself have experienced this hard-right xenophobia directly. Recently i expressed my personal views on refugees and was met with hostility from a militant, racist Oath Keeper who threatened to take me out because I was a race traitor, whatever that means. He then threatened my whole family because I advocate helping Syrian Refugees. He posted pictures of my family online and said he knew where to find me. Yes, he was reported to the FBI, and a case has been opened, but still a sense of fear remains. It’s a sad state of affairs when due to nationalism and hyper racism, I fear my own countrymen more than Syrian children.
For seven years now, we have had to listen to these right wing conservatives spread fear of Muslims ans at teh same time threaten American citizens while bearing arms in the streets. For seven years, conservatives have called our president weak and proclaimed this message to the world and yet, they are the ones who are running away from women and children who pose no threat because they have a different faith. Where’s the bravery in that? These are the same people who want to carpet bomb the Middle East rather that deal with the real humanitarian crisis caused largely by our militarized Middle East policies.
Let us not forget that it is due to George Bush’s’ invasion of Iraq that we have ISIS. When he forced the political leaders out of Baghdad, they left to form their own groups and became far more radicalized than ever before. That is a fact. Now they have become a far greater threat to the world than Al Qaeda ever was. Mission accomplished?
After 9/11, we let fear dominate our foreign policy and tuned a blind eye as George the II lied us into a war of aggression against a nation who posed no threat to us, as Bernie Sanders so eloquently stated back in 2002. And just like he predicted, we created a monster. Now our chickens are coming home to roost.
We messed up, big time. We broke the Mid-East, just like the GOP and the extremists in the region wanted and now we have a moral obligation to care for those who suffer from our mistakes. The current Syrian conflict is our making in that we divided the country with our reckless invasion of Iraq, which Syrian President Bashar Assad opposed. His forces are fighting ISIS, and we are fighting Assad and killing civilians in the process. Who are we helping by aiding ISIS in destroying Assad? If this isn't an indictment of how screwed our priorities are, i don't know what is.
The refugee crisis is our making by arming non-vetted, hostile ‘rebel’ forces why may or may not be ISIS fighters-we don’t really know. All we care about is that they wage war with political enemies simply because we have something to gain politically. The result is millions of displaced refugees world wide that had nothing to do with the conflict yet suffer all the same. And we are turning our backs on the suffering of the innocent.
The question that beg to be asked is why are we aiding terrorists such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda in their fight against Syria, a nation dedicated to fighting terrorism? As a progressive voter, this is one of the most troubling aspects of the Obama administration and something I do not wish to see continue.
We are a nation without honor, without integrity, and now, we are a nation full of cowards who refuse to help those who need it most because we are afraid of the ‘other’. We can either be a beacon of hope and freedom, or a nation who refuses to help the refugees of the Syrian civil war: we can’t be both. I, for one, refuse to be afraid of children in need. America, it’s time to suck it up and put on your big boy pants-we have people to save.
If you are interested in helping with the refugee crisis, click here.