Almost 20 years ago I went to one of the poorest countries in the world, Sierra Leone, to serve as a UN election observer. Charles Taylor, dictator of neighboring Liberia, had started a surrogate bandit operation which was the basis for a movie called Blood Diamonds. People were murdered, raped, kidnapped, and had their hands and arms chopped off with machetes.
When I got deep into the bush and reached a little town called Bo, I found a refugee camp of 7000 people who had fled the violence of the bandits. Every family had a hut. The UN provided food. They even had a school, which I had the pleasure of teaching about democracy in.
Is one of the poorest countries in the world so much better than the United States?
If Sierra Leone and so many other poor developing countries can accept refugees from war and violence, can the United States send children back to some of the most violent countries in the world? Are we that mean? Have we lost so much of our nation’s soul?
This is a question of refugee relief, which is common in very difficult parts of the developing world.
I am ashamed of the stupidity on the border with Tea Partiers, rednecks, and old fashioned peckerwoods talking about an invasion of the US with Texas Idiot Congressman Louie Gohmert saying the US should protect our border with warships–against 6 year olds?
Pope Francis just called on us to welcome the refugees. He might have recited from the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament of the Bible in 22:3, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan.”
Who are we? What will we do? Because what we do defines who we are.
Photo source: Eric Gay