The Country of NO
While America's Grand Ole Party (GOP) has come to be known as the Party of NO, the same can be said about the country itself.
With the latest flap about Syrian refugees (half of whom are children), the country shows its xenophobia in the worst way. The NYT columnists DAVID D. LAITIN and MARC JAHR proposed a solution (Let Syrians Settle Detroit):
Detroit, a once great city, has become an urban vacuum. Its
population has fallen to around 700,000 from nearly 1.9 million in 1950. The
city is estimated to have more than 70,000 abandoned buildings and 90,000
vacant lots. Meanwhile, desperate Syrians, victims of an unfathomable civil
war, are fleeing to neighboring countries, with some 1.8 million in Turkey and
600,000 in Jordan.
Suppose these two social and humanitarian disasters were conjoined to produce
something positive.
But conservatives like Ann Coulter will have none of it:
"The New York Times Prefers Syrian Refugees Over Black Americans"
This is the same Ann Coulter who once said "America is the world's most compassionate country."*
The Syrian crisis shows the world that "compassion" is no longer America's middle name.
The Numbers of Crisis and Compassion.
From Worldvision.org:
- 12 million Syrians have fled their homes because of conflict;half are children.
- 4 million Syrians are refugees; most are in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.
- Children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited. Millions have been forced to quit school.
- More than 700,000 Syrian refugees and other migrants risked their lives this year to travel to Europe.
And we can't won't
take in 70,000.
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