Here's a question that we each need to answer honestly.
Assume you were throwing a big party at your house. People were coming from all over town and you were providing food, drink and entertainment. Then assume that the police came to your door two days before the party and told you that one of the fifty people you invited was actually planning to come to the party in order to try to kill as many people as possible. The problem, however, was that there was no way to tell which of those guests was planning the attack. What would you do? Would you still hold the party? Would you invite these people into your home knowing that one was planning to kill people?
I think it's safe to say that there essentially no one who would knowingly invite a person planning murder into his or her home. Doing that would be crazy.
So why is it racist or bigoted then to advocate for limiting or blocking the entrance of Syrian refugees into the USA. We know that ISIS has infiltrated terrorists into the streams of supposed refugees. We saw the results in Paris. We know that our own government has told us that there is no way to come anywhere near certainty when it comes to finding the terrorists hiding as refugees. So why would we want to let them in? Doesn't it make more sense to protect Americans from terrorists?
I realize this is an old discussion, but I thought about it again today when I read an article on the HuffPo about Donald Trump's new foreign policy team. It ended with what HuffPo called an "editor's note" that said that Trump was a racist, xenophobic person who wants to block entrance of Moslems into the USA. One could certainly disagree about the extent to which Moslem entry is prevented. After all, if we can be certain who the people are, then we can make a rational decision about whether or not to admit them. But for the refugees about whom we know nothing, it is an easy choice to keep them out. That's smart, not racist.
Assume you were throwing a big party at your house. People were coming from all over town and you were providing food, drink and entertainment. Then assume that the police came to your door two days before the party and told you that one of the fifty people you invited was actually planning to come to the party in order to try to kill as many people as possible. The problem, however, was that there was no way to tell which of those guests was planning the attack. What would you do? Would you still hold the party? Would you invite these people into your home knowing that one was planning to kill people?
I think it's safe to say that there essentially no one who would knowingly invite a person planning murder into his or her home. Doing that would be crazy.
So why is it racist or bigoted then to advocate for limiting or blocking the entrance of Syrian refugees into the USA. We know that ISIS has infiltrated terrorists into the streams of supposed refugees. We saw the results in Paris. We know that our own government has told us that there is no way to come anywhere near certainty when it comes to finding the terrorists hiding as refugees. So why would we want to let them in? Doesn't it make more sense to protect Americans from terrorists?
I realize this is an old discussion, but I thought about it again today when I read an article on the HuffPo about Donald Trump's new foreign policy team. It ended with what HuffPo called an "editor's note" that said that Trump was a racist, xenophobic person who wants to block entrance of Moslems into the USA. One could certainly disagree about the extent to which Moslem entry is prevented. After all, if we can be certain who the people are, then we can make a rational decision about whether or not to admit them. But for the refugees about whom we know nothing, it is an easy choice to keep them out. That's smart, not racist.
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