Tori Lemon
Lantern Staff
Home can be a place, or it can be a person. Home is anywhere you feel safe, loved, valued and cared for. Or it can be a person that makes you feel those things.
Imagine waking up one day, and the feeling of “home” has been completely ripped from you. A place where you grew intellectually and watched your family grow as well has perished, and your sense of security is now long gone.
This persecution is all because your homeland has fallen into the peril of war, violence and hatred for you and what you believe in. You cannot stay here any longer. Home is no more, but where can you go when no other country wants you either? You run, hide and leave everything behind. You do not know where you are going, or even if you and your family will all arrive safely.
That is a refugee’s day-to-day mindset: fear and confusion.
According to whitehouse.gov, since 2011 almost 12 million Syrian men, women and children have fled their homes in search of a safer place to live. That’s almost half of the Syrian population.
As of Monday, Aug. 29 of this year, the United States’ National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice said at least 85 thousand refugees will be admitted to the United States by the end of this year.
While that is a great start, more must be done.
According to mirgrationpolicy.org, in 1975, the United States did in fact take in 125 thousand Vietnamese refugees back when the Vietnamese War ended. 125 thousand people grew to 750 thousand at the end of it all. In 1988, the United States admitted about 126 thousand Soviet Jewish refugees.
85 thousand refugees are not enough.
100,000 refugees are not enough.
America is not perfect, not by any means. However, when we have the opportunity to help and heal, I do believe it is 100 percent our duty to do so.
U.S refugees do not become terrorists. Syrian refugees are not terrorists. In fact, according to ISIS, Syrian Muslim refugees are traitors to the radical Islamic cause.
Although ISIS is fighting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who most refugees see as their main enemy, many refugees still see ISIS as their foe, and as the greatest evil.
America is home of the free because of the brave.
How brave are we really when we cannot even show moral courage?
It is ok to be concerned and to be worried for the well-being of our country. However, turning these people away makes us cowards. We are made to love and live wholeheartedly. We were made to help the ones around us grow and prosper in whatever ways that we can.
We must be courageous enough to resist the allowance of fear to overshadow our ethical duty to give out as many helping hands as we can.
