Meanwhile, somewhere in Lowndes County…
911 Operator: “This is 911. What is your emergency?’
Caller: “Uh, I’d like to report an invasion.”
911 Operator: “Invasion? You mean a home invasion?”
Caller: “Well, sort of. It’s my barn, actually.”
911 Operator: “Your barn?”
Caller: “Yeah, my barn. I was going out there a minute ago and I saw the light was on.”
911 Operator: “Continue, please.”
Caller: “Well, anyway, I was about 100 feet away and I saw these people in there.”
911 Operator: “How many people? Can you give me a description of these people? ”
Caller: “I didn’t get too close, but from what I could see, it looks like there is a man and a woman and possibly a baby. They looked like they were from the Middle East. Do you think they are Syrian refugees? I’ve been seeing a lot about that on TV. I wonder if they are terrorists. Should I go get my shotgun and pin ’em down for you till the cops come? What if they have bombs?”
911 Operator: “No, please, just stay on the line. Now, tell me…
Caller (interrupting): “Excuse me. My wife just came in and asked what was going on. I told her about the terrorists in the barn. She just laughed and called me an old fool. Turns out, she had just put out the Nativity Scene. Never mind.”
Click…
■ ■ ■
Sometimes events happen that are so horrific, so shocking that we find it difficult to process. The Paris terrorist attacks, which left 129 dead, many more injured, and the rest of the world unnerved, is the most recent example.
Our reaction has followed a predictable pattern. First, there is stunned disbelief, followed by incredible sorrow. Soon after, the emotions turn to anger — blind, unreasoning, anger, followed closely by fear. If it could happen in Paris, it could happen here.
This is the point at which the politicians step in because, as any politician knows, nothing keeps an audience on the edge of its seat like anger and fear. Strike while the iron is hot, as the saying goes.
At some point, we will move beyond the anger and fear, but we aren’t there yet.
The focus of our fear/anger has now shifted to President Obama’s plans to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S., a plan he announced weeks ago when the attitude toward those who were fleeing the monstrous shadow of ISIS was far more generous. When we saw those poor people in their desperate flight across the open seas, our hearts ached for them.
Then there was Paris and reports that one of the the terrorists had arrived by hiding among those poor refugees.
In an instant, sympathy was replaced by suspicion.
As of Tuesday, 32 governors announced they would oppose having any of those 10,000 refugees relocated in their state. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant was one of them, saying he would do “everything humanly possible” to prevent it.
When fear finally gives way to reason, we will discover this has been a gross overreaction. For starters, the refugees who are scheduled to arrive in the U.S. left Syria almost two years ago, long before ISIS became a dominant force in the region. Those refugees will have been subject to more two years of intense screening. There are no people coming into the U.S. who will have been subject to greater scrutiny than these refugees.
Too bad Dylann Roof didn’t receive even half as much vetting as these “dangerous” husbands, wives and children.
America has a long history with refugees. Some of our proudest moments are those in which we welcomed the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” There have been other instances we remember with shame — Jews fleeing Nazi Germany being turned away at our ports, Japanese-Americans being herded like cattle into internment camps.
American family trees have refugee roots in many, many cases. Heck, the Pilgrims we give a nod to next week were themselves refugees. Soon it will be Christmas, and we will recount the story of another poor Middle Eastern family desperately seeking shelter.
In that day, there was no room for them in the inn, we are told.
Today, there is no room in our hearts.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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