America, I am ashamed. –
That time when fear overpowered compassion, love and understanding. When
Liberty wept and the Constitution sighed….
By Maureen Gill
America, I am so ashamed of you… you cower in the shadow of terrorists’ threats, seeking an impossible level of protection and assurances of security by adding to the excruciating burdens of the Syrian refugees — innocent men, women and children who are fleeing from the same enemy we have, people who have experienced firsthand the spreading horrors of ISIS.
I
am appalled at the cowardly response of our state and federal legislators; how
ironic that one of the few times they can come together in a bipartisan fashion
is not to better the lives of millions but rather to increase the suffering of
so many.
They
do this under the guise of “national security” and their mandate to protect
Americans, but those rationales are ludicrous.
If
the United States of America cannot discern the difference between the hundreds
of thousands of suffering Syrians from the evil designs of the few, then let me
suggest some obvious ways to do so.
First, let in all the little children, let
in the babies and with them their desperate parents.
Look into the eyes of the
pregnant women with swollen bellies clutching nursing toddlers.
Search the eyes
of the terrified, haunted husbands and fathers and sons who can’t offer their
parents, their wives, and their children anything more than dangerous journeys
into hostile lands because they know there is no alternative other than flight
from the monsters of ISIS — they know if they stay, they die.
Look
into the eyes of the old men and old women who have fled Syria with their last
ounce of strength, sometimes literally carried out on the backs of their sons
and grandsons. TALK TO THESE PEOPLE for God’s sakes!
Listen to their stories. Are their stories credible? Perhaps they will show they are Christian or Yahzidi or prove they do not hate in the name of Allah.
There
is a PROFILE to the young male terrorists and their rarer female counterpart
and this is not the profile of little nursing babies, toddlers, wide-eyed
hungry children, anemic and ill pregnant women, old men and women, and young
men with old eyes who are desperate to save their families and are begging for
a chance to live, not die, in a world where there is hope.
We
are one petty, weak, pathetic people if we allow our fear of extremism to make
us throw away our compassion and good sense.
We
can no longer say we are the strongest nation on earth if we cannot put in
place appropriate screening — screening that is fast, reliable and humane.
We
are not a small country like Greece or Turkey, and we are not being overwhelmed
as they are; I understand how ISIS terrorists have slipped through the mess at
those borders.
America,
however, is vastly different. We can do this — and we must.
If
we do not open our states to the resettlement of the vast majority of the
Syrian refugees then those ISIS bastards will have won a great psychological
victory — and we will be in greater peril than any terrorist could place us in,
because we will be in moral peril. We will be cowards.
America
is not a country of simpering cowards. We are a people who rescue other people
and who stare down evil with stout hearts and souls and, if needed, forged
steel. Forget this and we are doomed.
Maureen
Gill is an author, columnist, and public speaker known for her
insightful historical analyses, biting political commentaries, classy wit, and
love for the underdog. You can reach her at windycityauthor@gmail.com
or twitter @WindyCityAuthor.
