By Angela Millar
According to the Washington Post, The United States has accepted for resettlement just under 2,200 refugees from Syria since the conflict began in 2011. The vast majority arrived within the last year. They are now arriving at the rate of 45 a week. The government seems very torn on the matter with over half of our governors saying ‘Don’t let anyone in. they MIGHT hurt us. Our safety comes first.’.
I overheard a similar conversation in one of my classrooms. The student said, “We shouldn’t let refugees in ever. we should only focus on protecting ourselves.”
I know I’m not the only person who disagrees, but I don’t understand the opposition. When people say we need to protect ourselves first it confuses the heck out of me because I don’t look at life by states, or countries. I look at life by beating hearts and who’s to say ours is more important than theirs because whether you realize it or not, that is what we are saying.
I can promise you that the probability of them hurting us if they come here is much less than the probability of them dying if they stay there. Sometimes the scariest, riskiest change is the change we need. If you tell me we shouldn’t help innocent people because they might be bad I will tell you that might isn’t a word in my vocabulary. We keep on saying that we want, or we wish to do something but we never take the risk. We let innocent people die because we are selfish and privileged.
I look at life by beating hearts and who’s to say ours is more important than theirs because whether you realize it or not, that is what we are saying.
So many people are saying that these people are not our problem but they are. The whole world is the problem and if no one tries to change that and help how will war end? It’s so easy to say we shouldn’t let them in when we are the ones with safety that advances more everyday, but for not for them. Some of the refugees have nothing. Some have no one. Some are innocent children that we are letting die when it would be so simple to help.
Although we are taking in refugees currently, residents of the US are fighting against this. Not to mention we are are not taking enough. If you argue that we want to help but have no way to do it safely I say, find another way. If we can’t provide protection here then we might as well go over there and protect them. Some say that they don’t want to come here which is 100% false. Although some people may not want our help they do want safety. Especially for their children. We can provide that for them and we should.