Sadness

This is the second installment of this blog entry.  The original is still unchanged below.  Unfortunately we are still encountering Americans making asses of themselves on the news over here.  I hate being embarrassed for my country.  

Please take 5 minutes sometime during this long weekend to reach out to your political representatives.  If you don't tell them differently, then they will continue to believe they are doing what you want and our country will continue to make the problem worse!   

Your email would represent a hundred people in their minds because these guys hear from so few voters that they will assume it's important if you take the 5 minutes out of your day to send a note. 

Here's an example of what I sent my representatives:

Dear Sir,

I am a voter from your district in Houston and am writing to tell you that I support continuing to allow Syrian refugees to enter our country using the existing screening process.  I also want our country to be safe, but do not agree with your recent positions on refugees.   

It is my understanding that the Paris bombings were organized and perpetrated mostly by French citizens born in France and then radicalized by by the Islamic State.  I think your current rhetoric actually helps the radicalization of Muslim citizens.  Please stop resisting refugees or implying that they are Muslims are less important than Christians.  It is making our country less safe, and is not very Christian.

  

Texas governor

http://www.gregabbott.com/contact-us/

Find your congressman

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Texas Senators

http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm

http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=email_senator   But I don't think Cruz will listen.

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The original blog post on November 18th

I hope you will share this.  Hopefully you don't share this post because I am not a great writer . . . but I hope you will discuss the sentiment with others, including maybe even your government representatives who are behaving like asses.  

A tragedy happened in Paris the same night I arrived in Istanbul.  And it is with great sadness that I am watching my country react based on fear instead of intelligence.    

There are a few things that folks in the US seem to be missing, like the facts:  
- All but one of the kamikazes currently identified in Paris were home grown.  They were born in France and the French speaking part of Belgium.  --update: it is now all but 2.  The Syrian passport was confirmed to be a fake over a week ago, but the person did enter Europe using the refugee process.  Little more is known about him.
- These kamikazes could and did re-enter their home countries without a refugee title.  
- The director of the operation was also home grown.  

So it boggles my mind to hear politicians and common people declare we should not accept refugees.  This reaction is not only uneducated, but the rhetoric is actually making the problem worse.  The terrorist attacks are not a refugee problem.  The refugee problem is that there are millions of families who have fled for their lives and have nowhere to go.  



I know it's scary times.  I'm scared too.  The thought of people willing to kill themselves in order to hurt innocent people is terrifying.  The wave of bomb threats after this attack is scary.  But there are other, better ways to respond than trying to keep innocent people out of our country.  Letting kids grow up in tent camps will not make us safer. The Islamic State says their goal is to generate fear and chaos.  They are winning right now because we are letting them.