Doomed to repeat

Ever since our country was formed by this constitution, this form that everyone holds so dearly, we have been a nation of hypocrisy. We want every man to be free. From the start that really only meant ones that were of  White Anglo-Saxon descendant. Every generation, we have despised these new people that threaten our country. Except for maybe the Native Americans when Europeans came here, but that is for a different story, different time.

We enslaved Africans. We shunned the Chinese and practically enslaved them too. Up and down the generations. The Irish. The Italians. The Jews. The Japanese. In my time, Puerto Ricans and other Latin American descent.

If we claim to be a nation built upon Christian values, we don't we act like it? Love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Jesus, if you believe in him and his teachings, wanted us to take care of people that are worse off than ourselves. He wanted us to clothe and house the homeless. Feed the hungry. Show compassion and caring.

Millions of Syrians are homeless. I am not here to debate why they are today, but I am here to say they are homeless because their homes are gone, their livelihoods destroyed. In what was deemed and Arab Spring has become a Winter of dread. Not knowing where your next meal is coming from is just something we should never have to imagine. But some of these people have had to do that for years.

Bad people are going to pass themselves off as one of these people. The United Nations and the US Government, though it may not be perfect, has an extensive vetting process that takes 18-24 months to go through. The people that wrecked havoc in Paris just walked in, walked through Europe. Their porous borders allowed this to happen. That is not the US. It is a lot easier for one of these terrorists, like the one from Belgium, to get in a plane and come here to create terror than a refugee.

Let us be deliberative in our actions. You might say will what about all of the homeless in our country? Have you ever attempted to help remedy this, instead of forwarding Facebook vitriol? I have. It is not about giving a homeless Veteran a home. Many of them had one. It is beyond that. We have systems that can help our people. Volunteer to help with the homeless before you use that argument. Mental health issues prevent many homeless from being housed. Again, the mental health problem is an issue for another day.

If we are a Christian country, should we not take care of them, the Syrians. Shouldn't it be a moral and a spiritual obligation to help all that are in need? Think about this poem:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This is the poem at the Statue of Liberty. The same poem that your ancestors may have seen sailing into New York. Let's not repeat our history once again. Let us take care of the people that need us the most. That is truly what makes our country great.