This map represents the West's cowardice and lack of humanitarian leadership. Bombing Syria, destabilizing the Middle East, and doing nothing to assist refugees other than paying the U.N. is morally wrong.
I'm sure many Americans made the same cultural assimilation arguments against accepting Jews during WWII--during a time when people weren't 100% sure what was happening. Today, we have satellites. We have no excuse. We know what is happening and do nothing. (Well, except telling Turkey that America is willing to accept their educated refugees only, especially PhDs.)
History will not forget. The Syrians and Iranians have accepted many refugees in their history. America, when given a chance to try to rebuild communities, failed.
© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (2017)
A reader responded: "Perhaps a more kind way of saying the same thing is that the U.S. doesn't know what culture it has anymore. No one is really giving a voice or identity to this generation, and we haven't adopted the good ideals of the founding fathers of making the U.S. a haven for the poor and downtrodden. I find it so interesting that people want to "make America great again" by doing the exact opposite of what made it great in the first place: granting poor people property and a chance at a normal life, regardless of their background."
Bonus: Amazon's Jeff Bezos was raised by a Cuban refugee. Andre Agassi's father was an Armenian refugee raised in Iran. He represented Iran as a boxer in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.
A reader responded: "Perhaps a more kind way of saying the same thing is that the U.S. doesn't know what culture it has anymore. No one is really giving a voice or identity to this generation, and we haven't adopted the good ideals of the founding fathers of making the U.S. a haven for the poor and downtrodden. I find it so interesting that people want to "make America great again" by doing the exact opposite of what made it great in the first place: granting poor people property and a chance at a normal life, regardless of their background."
Bonus: Amazon's Jeff Bezos was raised by a Cuban refugee. Andre Agassi's father was an Armenian refugee raised in Iran. He represented Iran as a boxer in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.
