That was then, this is now. Post Regan, its the “Citadel on the Hill”. No fishing, no swimming, no dumping, know nothing.
The 200,000 Vietnamese that came to America as refugees (because staying in Vietnam would be deadly for them as they helped the USA or they believed in what our entertainment media and propaganda) demonstrated later that a lot of business deals and ties that then increase our economy were facilitated by the Vietnamese-American community we had in the USA 40 years later. Before that virtually all of those immigrants became proud Americans and actually worked to continue to make this a great nation.
In the case of the Syrians we need to look at a typical refugee that came to my neck of the woods recently with his family:
Basically we have you as ignorant of the reasons why they became refugees, there was a lot of information and propaganda from the west to become more democratic, and the USA had made the point that Assad had to go, we did then supported opposition that allied to the west, the latest developments IMHO show that we will have to pull back from the idea to topple Assad from the time being and just like in Vietnam we have moral and tactical reasons why we should accept the people that did risk their lives to follow our ideal and that we encouraged them to get rid of the dictator.
It has been said that racism and bigotry are just extreme types of ignorance, less extreme but still ignorant goes for prejudging people that need our help after they risked it all for either democracy or our support.
We do not only have the classical moral reasons to help as with the Vietnam refugees, there are even other moral reasons for the Syrian refugees.
The video at the bottom talks about the moral implication of not doing anything about climate change, one needs to watch only the first 1 minute and 30 seconds to see the connection with the Syria situation; and how powerful fossil fuel corporations, many of them American, refused to listen to their own scientists about the risks of the CO2 released causing more intense droughts. New studies point at the big drought that happened in Syria as a very important factor that started the civil war that took place.
Possibly one of those refugees might have a child who will grow up to invent something cool like the iPhone that revolutionizes our world?
I don’t know about other countries, but in the US refugees are given assistance for only a limited time. They are expected to get work and start supporting themselves… and most do so (the elderly and children being the chief exceptions).
Once they are employed they pay taxes and therefore contribute to the common good. They buy stuff with their paychecks, which also contributes to the common good. They sometimes start businesses, including but not limited to ethnic restaurants, which other members of the community patronize, pay business taxes, and start employing other people, either fellow refugees or people who have been here all along.
In other words, if you allow refugees to actually participate in society they become contributing members and everyone benefits.
I heard this story on NPR’s Morning Edition a couple of months ago. It’s about a Syrian-American who owns an IT business in North Carolina. He has (or had) a cousin who lives (or lived) with his family in Damascus. The Syrian-American tried to sponsor the cousin’s family to come to the US but was not able to do so. The cousin is also trained in IT so presumably he could work for his cousin in North Carolina. In other words, the family would not be a burden on the public. And there are other Syrian-Americans who are willing to assist people in resettling here.
They work in IT? And that isn’t grounds for suspicion, right there?
Oh, heavens - that’s like saying if he’s an auto mechanic he might build a car bomb!
Honestly, just about anything can be viewed with suspicion these days. Is the guy a cook? He might poison someone! Plumber? Might sabotage a city water system.
Want to know the most famous Syrian involved in IT? Steve Jobs. Yeah, that worked out badly. :rolleyes: Maybe we should dig him up and FedEx him to Damascus, hmm?
Yeah, some guy in IT might be a bad dude. So could the American-born guy of some European ancestry waiting next to you at the bus stop. Stop assuming all people of a given nationality are criminals or terrorists.
[ol]
[li]These are not refugees. Do you know what refugees are?[/li][li]These people being caught is evidence that maybe we’re not so bad at keeping people out when they might pose more of a threat than the average Mexican woman trying to clean some houses in California.[/li][li]There is no evidence these people are terrorists. If there was, the media would be screaming that fact.[/ol] The fact that you “bet the odds are more they are” says more about your preconceived prejudices than the facts at hand.[/li]
Oh, and your own cite says "CBP said the “records checks revealed no derogatory information about the individuals.”
So yeah, I’m going with preconceived prejudices.
You do, of course, realize that that was elucidator you were responding to, right? Don’t you?
Perhaps the fact that in that post he wasn’t ripping off Mark Twain or John Brunner confused you.
Talent borrows, genius steals.
Well, apparently that is at least one long-term poster on the board that can’t recognize sarcasm when she sees it. Perhaps you should notate your own words with “Not stolen from a dead famous writer, but still sarcasm.”
I’m not serious. Amuse yourself, and if you amuse anyone else, that’s just a bonus. That’s what I do.
You’re saying you’re both self-amusers?
Yes, sarcasm doesn’t always come across well in text. This should not be news to anyone who’s been on the internet any length of time.
That’s why some people put a :rolleyes: or a [/sarcasm] at the end of sarcasm, to better communicate.
Some people merely put the word elucidator at the beginning of their posts. Means the same thing.
And some of us are not elucidator groupies, so we wouldn’t know that.
True. Especially since we already know that they have infiltrated refugees in Europe. It is quite reasonable to assume that they will do the same for refugees to the USA.
Except that the process in the US and Europe are completely different.
Lighten up, Francis.
Anybody who’s ever read any of his posts would know that.
What even sven said, and it is quite reasonable to assume also that you did not read the rest of the thread.