Nov 23, 2015

Allentown's Posturing and Reality About Refugees


Occasionally, Bill White thinks so much of his column, he has it placed on the front page, such was the case yesterday. White's headline was that fear about the Syrian refugees dims America's beacon of hope. White writes about a Iraqi refugee he met almost ten years ago. Last night,  Pawlowski told an interfaith gathering that as long as he's here, he'll do everything he can to support the refugees.  Six months ago, he wouldn't allow the Syrian community to raise their flag.  An article, which never made it to the Morning Call's hard copy edition, refers to the fears and doubts of current Syrian Americans, about the new arrivals. Also, according to Philadelphia news accounts, again never reported in the Morning Call,  over two hundred new  refugees arrived this weekend in Allentown.

While White and Pawlowski posture on about hope,  there was some news that should help reassure the local fearful. The local mosques, both Sunni and Shia, demonstrated against the terror in Paris this week. While the local Syrians of Christian background may be less involved with new Muslim arrivals than anticipated, the local mosques are well established, and very sensitive about perceptions from the greater community.

ADDENDUM:  The missing Syrian Christian refugees, according to Jonathan Witt, in The Stream

7 comments:

  1. Mike,

    In Allentown and America the government does what it wants. It ignores the will of the people. Why. Because it can. Some of this new reality is our own fault. We don't vote and when we do we elect the wrong people.Another factor is that large segments of the population have been bought off through government programs.But the final and most important enabler of this new government tyranny is the sympathetic/subservient media coverage Democratic Administrations receive.

    Scott Armstrong

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  2. Mr Molovinsky.

    The photo you posted with this article shows New York harbor and in the background are the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Does our government not remember why those buildings no longer exist?

    We read in the news and watch on television constantly about attacks by terrorists in nations around the world. Just this morning police have been killed in Europe in gunfights with terrorists.

    The Morning Call shows photos of smiling families, women and children greeting each other. What about the rest that our government wants to allow into the United States? Are they all the same way?

    We have homeless people already in Allentown that will need places to shelter this winter. Homeless women and children, Why are they not on the front page as well? Don't they deserve help before letting in people we don't know who they are?

    Let these people get help from the rich nations around them. We don't need to help them here, I'm sorry. Don't we already send foreign aid money to help them where they live already ?

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  3. Something else, before I forget.

    Every time I drive by where those mosques are that you mentioned, I think of our brave soldiers who came back from Afghanistan and Iraq that are missing arms and legs and are in wheelchairs.

    Are the people of those mosques helping our wounded warriors ?

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  4. jamie, a lot of thought goes into the photos i choose to show. in bill white's column, he glosses over the fact that the iraqi refugee he met ten years ago was a victim of Islamic inter sect hostility, without mentioning aggression toward other faiths, and secular governments. for those reasons, I don't dismiss those opposed to our current accelerated refugee policy, especially with the candy coating being put forth by the obama administration. however, that said, we must guard against Islamophobia. i have no insecurity about our local mosques, their good intentions or Muslim immigration under normal circumstances.

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  5. When Sunnis and Shiites learn to live together peacefully, then maybe we can trust THEM to live among US peacefully.

    Sorry, but there it is. Ask why NO other Gulf States (Saudi, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait) have NOT taken in a single refugee? Ask why China, which has 21 million Muslims and a 1400 year old legacy of that religion, has refused refugees.

    Hint: it's because they can't even get along with their own kind.

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  6. Our government is very generous with our money.

    When we bring 3rd world refugees here, we are assuming responsibility for them. They know little or no English, probably don't know the English alphabet, have a trade?, or an education?. We will have to supply food, housing, clothing, medical, dental, transportation, social workers, translators, and special teachers. They will get free glasses (my optician friend deals with this) and free pre/post natal care, and free orthodontia.

    I would estimate that a refugee family requires $100k of goods and services a year. Add another $100k for the government to collect and dispense to money.

    The country is $12 trillion dollars in debt, to me taking on this additional burden is the definition of insanity. It's my hope the younger people will wake up and realize it is they who are going to have to pay back this money.

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  7. America is a nation of immigrants, and the U.S. is as much an Ideal as a country. I get it. And I believe it wholeheartedly. And I'm proud that we are what we are.

    It does not follow from that, however, that we are morally obliged to indiscriminately open our borders.

    Want to fix immigration once and for all? Require that every individual wishing to immigrate have a bond posted by a citizen guaranteeing their financial support and pledging to make good for the ensuing damages resulting from any criminal act they may commit. There can be no better nor more effective vetting mechanism than that. The added benefit is that anytime we are called "xenophobic", we can tell our accuser to put his/her money where their mouth is and post a bond to extend the privilege (and it is a privilege, not a right) of entry into our country to as many potential immigrants as they like.

    -Jeffrey Anthony

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