Refugee or Alien, Sanctuary or Bar Code

[TexasTowelie]

By Carol Morgan

Ambivalence: Holding simultaneous and conflicting attitudes and emotions about a certain issue.

The refugee/immigrant/illegal alien issue is NOT an all-or-nothing-support-or-reject-issue. If you're an intelligent and reasonable person, you probably have some mixed feelings about this. Just like other Americans, swaying back and forth in this cognitive tug-of-war, I’ve been vacillating between sympathy and national self-interest for several days.

Regardless of party, most everyone is divided, but the GOP is acting unreasonably, as usual. They excoriated the President for not deporting the children fast enough, but when he requested $4 billion to do what they asked, they refused to kick in the emergency funding.

They complained about his providing temporary refuge to the children and families, ignoring the fact that the 2008 bipartisan anti-trafficking bill enacted under President Bush prevents any action. Yet, when he requests Congress’ action to alter the bill to expedite the system, they drag their feet.

They demand executive action, then threaten to sue and impeach him when he utilizes the option.

Obama cannot win and that’s exactly the way they like it.

It’s quite shameful that Texas politicians, more than any other state, are using this crisis as a way to score political points.

Greg Abbott is threating to sue Obama over it.

Our Governor claims there’s an Obama conspiracy in this.

Perry refused a photo-op with the President, but he had no problem donning a cowboy hat and guns for a photo-op with Sean Hannity. The mouth behind the pine curtain, Louis Gohmert, suggested the refugees be met with guns at the border.

But what did you expect? Remember these are kids, not fetuses, so we shouldn’t expect them to come to their defense.

Our own Congressman Randy Neugebauer did some personal and predictable chest-beating on Hannity’s show, but I’m not surprised at this. He’s flipped flopped around for over a year, reading from the script given to him by his donor-benefactors.

For Neugebauer, nothing says “I Believe in America” like having your son take the family company to Puerto Rico in order to evade taxes.

As usual, Americans view this crisis through a set of American-made lens. The reality is this: America is not the only country coping with a flood of refugees who are desperately escaping war, famine, corruption and death. Since March 2011, nine million Syrians have fled their homes to bordering countries like Turkey and Jordan.

50,000 refugees from Central America is tiny in comparison to nine million people running from the war in Syria. With Europe taking in a mere 4% of those leaving, it’s an unbelievable strain, both on the neighboring countries and the refugees.

Imagine the outcry if Syrian families, running from the bombs and butchery of Assad and the rebels, were turned away by Turkey and Jordan and forced to return?

Forced-migration from war, famine, corruption, and rebel groups is a global problem.

There is constant turmoil and unrest on the African continent; the Republic of Congo, Sudanese running to Ethiopia, Cameroon, and just a few days ago, almost 200 fans from Ghana requested religious asylum while attending the World Cup. Political unrest forces children to flee from Jakarta, hunger forces Bangladeshis to the large cities of India, there’s the religious unrest and violence in Myanmar, not to mention the thousands fleeing from the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

I want to laugh when I hear the speeches about America being the welcoming light in the Emma Lazarus poem. These orators are either lying or re-writing history. America has never welcomed immigrants with open arms. We may have allowed some to enter on work-visas or as a strategy to fill cheap worker shortages, but don’t kid yourself, it was for our benefit, not warm-hearted humanitarianism.

Americans are always demanding to know “what’s in it for me?”

Let’s be honest. America itself has been creating refugee crises for decades. Throughout history, America’s foreign policy echoes corporate policy. We have artificially propped up military coups, evil tyrants, and deranged murderers in the name of national security which, in reality, benefitted the military-industrial sector, energy companies, or multi-national corporations.

In the case of Central America, look no further than Dole, the leader in the banana and pineapple industry. Central America was a banana republic before that term became symbolic. All of it done in the name of cheap labor.

In the case of America, our foreign policy motto has always been: The enemy of the enemy is my friend…but only temporarily and to serve American purposes. There are too many examples to list, but it always comes back to bite us in the derriere. We are slow learners.

Even if we show a little compassion, we’re forced to justify that compassion in terms of economic benefit. Just this morning, the AJ Editorial Board lauded the decision to house the immigrants in Littlefield because it would bring jobs and economic benefit to Littlefield.

Economic benefit always greases the wheels of compassion, right? It makes it more politically correct and easier to swallow.

Some would argue it's just being practical. I suppose we’ll all be receiving our individual bar codes soon. It will let us know our true worth to the capitalist society we work so hard to serve.

It is so very American to think of human beings only in terms of dollars and cents.

The next cost analysis will show us how much each refugee is worth to us in economic benefit. Harsh? No, because this is way most Americans view everything. We already do it for our prisons and educational institutions.

The greatest Supreme Court Justice in history, Thurgood Marshall once remarked, “The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.”

I suspect Justice Marshall would be shaking his head in disgust today.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m beginning to believe our leaders don’t know either. Unless of course, it involves monetary benefit—then they’re ready to listen.

http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-07-16/refugee-or-alien-sanctuary-or-bar-code#.U8gtQLFCz2Q

Permission granted to repost this blog in its entirety.

[dem in texas]

1. Yes, this has not been Obama's greatest moment - but...

You can't leave those children in cells and metal warehouses. 59,000 in relation to our total population of over 312,000,000 is a tiny dot. Why can't people open their hearts to kids and families, they need our help. Does anybody remember the Mariel boat lift from the late 1970's when Carter was President? Castro opened the Cuban prisons and sent hardcore criminals to US shores from the Cuban town of Mariel, about 25,000 in all, then he let another 100,000 people leave. South Florida was overrun with 125,000 refugees in a short period of time. It was disruptive most especially on South Florida, but everyone worked through it. I remember some of the refugees were settled here in the Dallas area. All did not work out, some of the criminals ended up in our prisons, but most of the Mariels ended up being productive tax paying citizens. If there were many protests then, they were not of mean vicious nature of what we are seeing now.