An Open Letter to My Representatives

In light of the news that the House of Representatives just passed a bill to suspend the resettlement of Iraqi and Syrian refugees in America unless they receive even more security clearance (making an already challenging process nearly impossible), I decided it was way past time for me to use my democratic voice to say, "Stop this madness!"

This morning, while waiting in the shop for my car, I wrote to my House representative and my Senators. You can easily contact your own representatives by filling out an email form - just Google "how to contact my senator" or something similar.  Here's my letter:

I'm heartbroken and confused at the recent actions of the House to further restrict the resettlement of Iraqi and Syrian refugees in America. Please know that any rhetoric or legislation that makes the U.S. even less welcoming to these people who have so reasonably fled the violence in their homelands does not represent me either as a Republican or an Iowan. 

We must welcome more, not less. We must love and help these refugees and help them assimilate as much as they are willing to do. It is our moral obligation and it makes prefect sense; millions of people are now stateless and homeless. Where are they supposed to go? We can provide them a state and a home, and so we should do this. 

The security risk is not worth considering here. Terrorists will enter America regardless of what we do about refugee policy. They need not come from Iraq and Syria. They could come from other places. They could be here already. They could get on the Internet and be radicalized from any living room in America. Our fight is against the ideology promoted by the terrorists, and until we win the ideological battle, we have no hope of stopping the recruitment, training, and deployment of terrorists. 

Again, to summarize: Do not close the door to refugees. It's not right, and it won't work. 

By the way, I think my city alone could absorb several thousand refugees from Syria and Iraq. Please send them here. 

Sincerely, 

Alison

Learn about the Migrant Crisis with Me

Hey readers.  Let's talk about refugees.

Let's talk about normal people who want to live normal lives but got stuck in countries where that’s no longer possible.  Let's talk about men, women, families, and teenagers putting their lives at risk to leave places where their lives are even more at risk.  I once heard a quote about refugees that went something like this:  "Why do middle-class people put their families on leaky boats with shady people promising to get them to another country?  Because they believe that boat is safer than where they are now."

The violence and instability in the Middle East have caused millions to escape across borders into neighboring countries, and now many are journeying through Europe toward safer lives in Western Europe. And yet, they are often being treated like criminals! Good grief! Being a refugee is not a crime, even if it means you made an illegal border crossing.

Let's do this:

Check out THESE PHOTOS of the migrant crisis from Time.  Here's one, a Syrian man who arrived in Greece last week.  But all of the photos are moving, and if you click on only one of my multitudinous links this post, click this one.

Follow the journey of THIS SYRIAN PHARMACIST who made it safely to Europe and told the story of all the perils along the way, using the map below:

Watch CNN's interview with THIS SYRIAN SURVIVOR, whose toddler made international news for being photographed dead on a Turkish beach, where he washed up after their boat capsized and his father couldn't save him.

Check out THIS PHOTO COLLECTION of the items in refugee's bags -- the only things they carried from their homelands into freedom.  Interestingly, several took things like hair gel because they wanted to look like residents (rather than refugees) in order to avoid arrest while traveling through Europe.

Shake your head over Hungary's treatment of refugees passing through their country, detailed in THIS BBC VIDEO.   (Click the text link to view)

Learn more about the EU migrant crisis in this quick article, MIGRANT CRISIS BY THE NUMBERS.

Most importantly, feel compassion.  And then do whatever your compassion leads you to do.

Pray.

Give.

Go.

Pray for the EU as they decide what to do about the migrant crisis.  Pray for world leaders to have some idea how to weaken evil groups like ISIS.  Pray for the men of ISIS themselves to repent and submit their lives to God.  Pray for peace.

Befriend some refugees where you live.  Learn and tell the stories of men, women, and children in crisis around the world.  Ask your government to accept more refugees.  Support an overseas worker in the Middle East.

Probably most of us won't do enough, or won't do it well.  But hey -- at least let's do something.

#WelcomeRefugees.

On ISIS, Paper Cranes, and the Global Community

Here's me with my grandparents, ready to head to an elementary school concert.  I'm guessing that I'm 11 years old because I appear to be post-perm (that was age 8), but pre-babybangs (that was age 12).   Clearly, I'm also pre-braces (age 13).  It's a great photo; you're welcome, Internet.

Think back -- what were you doing at age 11?  I was playing outside, reading books, hanging out with my friends, and writing cheesy poems.  So, not much has changed, except at least now I know my poems are cheesy, while at that time I thought they were fine literature.  ("A fallen log has many uses/ A bridge or a balance beam...")

Think about your family and friends.  What are your neighbors, nieces and nephews, cousins, and children doing at age 11?  What sports do they play?  What technology are they into?

...Are any of them getting sold into slavery?

Because if they are elementary age children, and especially if they are minorities (Christian?  Yeah, that's me...), and especially if they are girls, they are not that different than the children now being kidnapped and sold by ISIS.

Here's a screenshot from a Google search I just did on "ISIS+children+slavery."  Many of these sources are reputable, and recent.  This is actually happening.

This is actually happening.

Last week I read an article from blogger Ann Voskamp, who visited with Yezidi women who had been displaced from their homes and terrorized by ISIS.  Here's a little bit for you to read:

But we’re not about to cover up their stories with trite and flimsy distractions, we won’t act like what’s happening with ISIS isn’t the story of our times, isn’t the story that defies geography, isn’t the story that threatens the cradle of civilization. 

How do you just sit on the floor of a shipping container and just let these women carry this kind of terror alone — how do you turn away and go back to your neat little life of wheaties and news reels and how does the church not stand up and howl?

That's the question I'm aiming to answer in this post: "How does the church not stand up and howl?" How does anyone not stand up and howl?

Most of us are good at rallying around our communities when times are tough.  I recently went to the 9/11 memorial in the church across from Ground Zero.  There were posters, signs, and notes from around the country that had been sent to encourage the city.  There were even thousands of paper cranes that had been sent from schoolchildren in Asia.  (Are Yezidi families getting paper cranes?)

I remember being so proud of my community when the whole town turned out to sand-bag during the flood of 2008. (Would your whole town turn out for an anti-ISIS march?)

Just today, Amber Alerts called us to be vigilant so that we can intervene in a child abduction case.  We want to help each other; we want to keep children from danger; we want to support those in pain.  So why don't we seem to care much about the Middle East?

I think the answer is that we don't consider "them" a part of "us."  We don't see these men, women, and children as part of our community.  So we can't make ourselves care.

And if we don't care, we don't pray.  We don't advocate.  We don't give.  We don't go.  We don't act.

(I include myself in this.)

What do you think?  How can we change?