11.18.15: Syrian Refugees - What Not To Do

This blog originates from New York City and we've been here long enough to have experienced what it was like to live here on that tragic September day a little over 14 years ago. The reason we mention this is because today there were rumors going around about not riding the subways and something could be going on in New York, which the police later verified as false. The first thing we did when we left our day job (shocker: we don't blog full-time), it was right to the subway. Because we refuse to live in fear and we're not going to alter our routines because of futile, hateful threats. Not going to happen. Maybe this is just us wearing the New York City badge on our collective sleeve, but that should not be how it goes in the United States.

So what does all that have to do with Syrian refugees?

It strikes us an odd that the same people who would be willing to send our soldiers back to the Middle East as a show of strength are afraid to take in Syrian refugees.  These people would send our troops back to a hotter zone where they're essentially a target for not just ISIS but Hezbollah, the Iranians, Al Qaeda among others. Yet, they are scared of carefully vetting refugees from Syria. And the ones who say that they don't trust this Administration to conduct the vetting process is simply trying to score dirty, cheap political points. If Congress insists that these refugees need to be screened more thoroughly, then so be it. We encourage it, but know it will still be the same people in the FBI doing the vetting no matter who's in the White House. And do you think that if they determine any one to be even slightly suspicious that person would be getting in? Please.

The governors, who really have no control over this, refusing to take in refugees are acting cowardly, frankly. They are living in fear and pessimism, and they're making you think that way as well. Where's the America that says, "You know what? We'll take them in and help them live their dreams here in The States until we defeat the nightmare that is you." Pardon the phrase, but these governors need to man-up.

If you've shown any support or sympathy for the people of France in the past few days (We all have.) then read this:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,

I life my lamp beside the golden door.

                                                                                                     -Emma Lazarus

Of course, that's the inscription on the statue of the big beautiful lady majestically standing in Upper New York Bay, but remember - it was a gift from the French.