Oh, the greatest country on Earth, the inimitable United States, the promised land, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty! Oh yes. Your bosom swells, you feel the opportunities abound and if you have ever visited another country you have a testimony of just how good the majority of Americans have it.
Our nature is to share good things when we find them. We will share good food, fine books, fun games, curious websites, the gospel . . . anything that brings us a lasting happiness. From this avenue of thought we conclude that we would want to share our country, too.
First, I'm going to give you the bleeding heart. It's a pitch that works because most of us are able to feel empathy.
Aziz and his family live in Syria. We all know Syria. It's an awful and wartorn, brutalized country suffering from a civil war where we don't want either side winning because they're both bloodthirsty zealots with nothing but the worst in mind for a country that would be pivotal in a global conflict. The fighting there is worse than we are told, it's worse than we've experienced, and it's worse than we can imagine.
Aziz is a refugee. He lives in a squalid camp among thousands of people in a similar situation. They are all dependent on the charity of international organizations, and the aid of international workers and few of these people and organizations actually care. And if they do care, they can't do it for long because it's too costly on them personally. It isn't long before Aziz and his family become just another face in the crowd.
His wife is ill and she cannot get the care she needs, his kids are too skinny and malnourished. Well then why in the world are they suffering like this when across two seas is the land of plenty? Where mom can get her treatment, and the kids can eat, and we can save these wretched refugees? Why? Bring them in by the boatload! Let's save them!
Are you moved? Motivated? Can you see past your feelings, or do you just want to get them over here so they can be saved? It's easy to declare but where are you? Just voting, or are you physically participating?
Now I am going to give you the conservative approach. It is a pitch that requires you to think past your emotions, and your anger, and your sense of justice because that is required, and will always be required to make good decisions.
The plight of Aziz is heartbreaking, and if it's in our power to do something then we are obligated to do something. In his country and by virtue of his government, culture, and religion his morals, values, and principles contrast in alarming ways with ours. We are in a system that has allowed illegal immigration for decades, so it is no longer requisite for an immigrant to learn our language, adopt our culture, and integrate into our system. Instead they have established their own communities, live under false identities, and are often forced to break the laws of the land because their governments and ours seldom cooperate.
Thus the homogeny of our culture and communities is deeply compromised. Do not deny it. You can witness it.
Imagine then that we bring in not just Aziz, but the hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from Syria. Their religion culture, customs and language are their foundation. They have been for over a thousand years. They believe in a system of laws contradictory to American beliefs by virtue of being Syrian. They will not integrate. They will not learn our language. They will not accept our values or customs.
They will establish communities within communities as they have done throughout Europe. Every person likes being with their own, and that is magnified if you share a language. Furthermore if you share a religion. They will do this and as an issue of discrimination they will demand that Sharia courts be established among their communities.
So much has been disclosed about Islamic customs and culture that I don't have to illustrate conflicting ideology. It is obvious. Combine these differences with the politically correct culture of offense and you have the elements necessary to fundamentally destroy your culture.
The culture that allows you to express your opinion, live free and without fear of government reprisal, and which gives you the liberty to make choices and live the consequences is the culture we are talking about. The one that advocates equality of the sexes and sexualities. The culture that decries all the -isms that haunt the human race's efforts to evolve past our differences. Imagine all this being dragged back into the dark ages so that our culture is completely annihilated.
So you are right. We are obligated to help. But you are wrong because you have reacted emotionally, rather than logically. There are several solutions outside of bringing in a large population of refugees, no matter what conflict they come from. There is a process called immigration and it was put in place for a variety of important reasons, a few of which have already been covered.
The most important reason is integration. Were we the refugees and our country has done little more than let us down, push us around, murder our relatives and friends, and steal every opportunity it could from us as Americans and we could immigrate to another part of the world where these problems did not exist, we, too would be more than enthusiastic to integrate and become card-carrying citizens of that country.
Listen to your head, not your emotions.
No comments:
Post a Comment