She Was An Immigrant

Asha came to the United States from Poland, and when she died, there were such cruelties on message boards; anonymous people posted that she had married her husband to stay in this country, that little Anina was an "anchor baby"--such cruel words directed at a person none of them knew.  How many of their parents were immigrants to this country?  How many grandparents?  At some point, all of them had immigrants in their background.

I'm disgusted, frankly, at the amount of people, even friends of mine, who post that if we let in refugees fleeing war and the horrors perpetrated by ISIL (sorry, will not use the name of the goddess for those insane and murderous people), we will be letting in a bunch of terrorists.  I think nothing could be further from the truth.  There have ALWAYS been people here (including American citizens) who have commited crimes, terrible ones, for some cause or another, in the name of an ideology.

I think it's a matter of balancing what this country has always stood for in terms of immigration: opening our arms to those who come here, for whatever reason, to seek refuge in the United States.  During World War II, the government turned away over a thousand Jewish refugees, who then were forced back to Europe, where many of them died in concentration camps. ISIL is one of the most evil forces to emerge in modern times.  Their atrocities fill me with absolute horror, that such sickness and barbarism exist, and they are willing and even happy to perpetrate it. Should we send families, including children, back to that hell?  They come here seeking safety; we will give them none. If the shoe were on the other foot, many Americans would be demanding to get into other countries and appalled if no one let them in--even insulted.  I would wager that countries overseas would be kinder to us than we have been to them.

Our world and our country are on the brink of change where we ALL have to pull together and take care of each other.  Perhaps I'm naive.  Maybe I am.  This is my opinion, born from thinking a lot about these issues. Can we, as a country, open our hearts yet again, in the same way this country opened their hearts to people coming here to seek a better life, free from oppression?  It remains to be seen.