To Our European/British/etc Members

[AppleCori]

I couldn't bring up that program. It says it is only available on the BBC I-player. If you see it somewhere else, let me know.

 

[BusynMember]

Without getting into anything controversial, I am almost always extremely liberal and welcoming, but this scares me. I don't think we can properly vet everybody. We are also have financial problems of our own and services have been cut massively for our own poor.And our poor are poor. Things have been cut tremendously and our poor probably live worse lives than in many European countries who try to take care of their less wealthy in better ways than we do. I don't see how this can be done...

It is interesting to read how other countries are reacting. One thing Americans almost never get on the news is how other people in other parts of the world feel. It's like our opinion is all that is important.

I used to watch the news hungrily. Things have become so bad in our country alone, in my opinion, that I can't stand to watch it. Too much stress. I do know what is going on, but try not to dwell on it or learn too much. There is nothing I can do to change anything.

This situation does not make me happy. I am fine with Mexican immigrants being granted citizenship, but not this.

 

[nlj]

I couldn't bring up that program. It says it is only available on the BBC I-player. If you see it somewhere else, let me know.

It's on youtube aswell now. Can you play this?:

Hungary's FM Peter Szijjarto defends refugee record - BBC HARDtalk

 

[TerryJ2]

My easy child is getting her PhD in psychology (art therapy) in D.C. Her favorite instructor is a female Syrian immigrant. She came here about 10 yrs ago and immediately went to school for her PhD. She does not wear a hijab and easy child hasn't asked her any personal questions yet.
But this trailblazing woman specializes in kids who have undergone war trauma. I can't think of a better fit. Excellent.
I want to meet this woman and ask her a million questions.

 

[AppleCori]

Thanks for the youtube video, nlj,

He makes a lot of good points.

 

[AppleCori]

SWOT--

You are right--the US has been spending $ like the proverbial 'drunken sailor' to the point that we are $8.6 trillion I debt, growing daily because of our deficit spending.

 

[Copabanana]

What does Saudi Arabia know about this situation that we are not being told?

That is an interesting question. Because I think that both Syria and Saudi Arabia are both Sunni-dominated.

Now with the Pope's visit to the US the dialog is expanding.

There are of course political realities. Unattached men. How are they perceived? A threat or like our own grandfathers or great-fathers? The men typically came first. Then they would bring over sisters or wives and maybe mothers.

Saudi Arabia is a monarchy. The leadership of Al Queda were Saudi's I think. The professed goal of Al Queda was to unseat the monarchy. There would be pragmatic reasons the Saudi monarchs would not want to allow the potential to be unseated from within. Why would I allow someone into my house that wants to destroy me? I would assume that charity and inclusion are part of the Muslim faith because they share roots with the Judaic and Christian faiths.

The USA professed as an identity religious freedom, while at least initially practicing exclusion based upon race, for sure, and covertly against less "acceptable" religious groups such as Mormons, for example. But our Constitutional Democracy establishes an identity whereby we strive to be heterogeneous.

That has been a topic on the news this week in the comments of Ben Carson our presidential candidate on whether there could be a Muslim President. Initially, he said no, although that would be unconstitutional. Anybody over 35 can legally be President.

In the USA there is a wide current of Nativism, the wish to deny real American belonging to anybody but "us." The thing is that "us" is more and more blended. Which when you get to the heart of things, is the issue. There has been a reaction here to the browning of America.

It is to that the Pope is responding. Latin America is Creole. There was more more intermarriage between Natives and Europeans and the descendants of slaves which is reflected in a common culture and language. In Brasil, for example, upper and middle and lower class people of all colors and economic class speak the same, listen to the same music, and to a far greater extent than here. There is racism but it is largely economic. The Pope is Argentine. He knows that the unification of the world is happening. He embraces it and wants us to, too.

I am the granddaughter of immigrants. My family was already blended in the 2nd generation. My mother, a Jew married, a Scot, a gentile. Jews were despised by my father's family. In my generation, my SO is an undocumented Mexican, and my adopted son is biracial. Both of those categories would have been rejected by my father's family. The reality which we fear is already here.

I think what the Pope is saying is that what you fear is here. Embrace it with your best self. Not with your worst fear. Become what you fear. Incorporate your fears into who you are. It will make you stronger.

When I moved to my home, there was a Palestinian family directly across the street. My son made friends first. The Mother was very impressed with my son. Eventually she and I became fairly close. I came to know her children and extended family. Her children would come to my home and my yard when only my son was home.

Eventually, her husband became concerned. He no longer would allow his daughters to come to the house or yard when only my son was home. I was relieved. I explained to my son that the father's responsibility was to raise his daughters according to his faith, and ours to accept and respect that.

Unfortunately, another neighbor, another woman tried to influence my son to be angry and to feel slighted by the father's decision. To feel as if he was being discriminated against by this father. I asked her to please let my son decide on his own, to interpret and respond to the situation. Instead, she became angry at me, and doubled down. If you knew what pain came from this you would feel very sorry for me.

The thing is this: As long as we are alive as people and as cultures there will be change. There will be environmental challenges. We either adapt and become or we die. We adapt based upon our best selves. To resist weakens us. That is what I think.

We have a world situation which is affected by great migrations. In the USA, predominantly from the South. In Europe, too. We as a nation have had a great part in the destabilization of the Latin American Continent which is largely economic. We have had a part in the destabilization in North Africa, too. We need to be part of the solution. That is our best self. That is my feeling. These are not political views I am espousing, they are human values, I believe.

 

[AppleCori]

Of course the Saudis don't want Al Queda or Isis in their country.

The rest of us don't either.

That's kinda the point.