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Terror from afar — and this already here

Who are we? That’s the million-dollar question lately, and the recent House vote to limit Syrian refugees cuts to the very heart of our patriotic identity as a nation of immigrants.

It’s hard to make decisions in the forge of hot emotion, but we depend on our representatives to do just that. With questionable regard for the wisdom of history or today’s compelling reality of refugee life, 289 legislators acted in haste to limit the migration of people fleeing war, famine and terror in Syria.

We all inhabit a small world grappling with a complex global crisis. In the weeks since the Paris terror attacks, finding accurate information through the haze of fear and political posturing has been a challenge. It seems the only way to get at the truth is to look outside the fact-challenged voices of hot rhetoric and untempered ideology. Just as the best food can be found along the edges of the supermarket, the most reliable information quietly asserts itself in surprising places.

It’s normal and appropriate for feelings of confusion and fear to surface among people unused to the horrors occurring in troubled parts of the world. The impulse to protect American citizens makes sense. Addressing real threats – even if that requires further chipping away at our freedom of mobility, a fact of life since 2001 – must remain in the realm of rationality. The House decision, while noble in its impulse to protect Americans, lays a finger of guilt on a vast body of innocent people. In so doing, it erodes our identity as a centuries-old refuge for those seeking a better life and the manifold opportunities that exist in this country.

Hope. A place to work and get ahead. A land that has not seen war within its borders for 150 years. These promises have attracted immigrants for centuries, and with each wave, those already settled feared the newcomers.

It’s human nature to be wary of outsiders. But American experience should settle the issue. Irish immigrants didn’t steal jobs. German-Americans didn’t summon an invasion of “Huns,” and newspapers are still written in English. Japanese Americans were cruelly interned, as a backward glance at 20th-century history reveals. Swedish people, Poles, and Italians who busily shunned each other 75 years ago to preserve their essential customs produced descendants who are now equal parts of this expansive American quilt. As new and different pieces are added, America’s constitutional essence remains free and strong.

Clarkston, Ga., is a model American quilt. More than half the population of this little city, dubbed by locals “The Ellis Island of the South,” is composed of refugees fortunate enough to find their way to freedom. For a quarter century, these former African and Middle Eastern foreigners have become naturalized and taken up employment and volunteer work. As the welcome mat has unfurled in fits and starts over 25 years, attitudes have evolved, forming out of this surprising place a blended slice of American life.

History demonstrates time and again how this nation’s resiliency and strength are built on such blending. Migrants strive to reach the United States for peace, freedom, and opportunity. The promise of greener grass compensates for the psychological hardship of leaving familiar, albeit troubled, places. Today’s Syrians live out that truth as certainly as our collective immigrant grandparents did.

Logical thinking points to the normalcy of places as small as Clarkston and as large as the cities whose mayors have signed a pledge to accept Syrian refugee. Since 9/11, only 12 of the 785,000 refugees accepted into the United States have been arrested or deported. Critics respond with the argument that “all it takes is one.”

That’s true. One foreign zealot, one home-grown zealot. One Charleston murderer. One Timothy McVeigh. One anti-choice activist.

Sen. John McCain recently urged fellow conservatives to view the refugees as a “symptom” of the problem, not the problem itself. And the right-leaning Cato Institute supports continued refugee processing. These voices, like others across the political spectrum, rightfully demand careful screening. And across the spectrum, thankfully, voices of calm reason inspire compassion as well.

In the long run, compassion and reasonable care are the twin pillars that will sustain an America that resembles a little city in Georgia. The very traditions of this sturdy nation are at stake.

Renee Gravelle is a Dunkirk resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com

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