It seems like every week there is some new controversial issue sweeping around the world. People are ripping each-others throats out in social media and continually bickering back and forth. In the latest controversy regarding allowing Syrian refugees into the United States, I am somewhat hesitant to welcome them with open arms.
I follow a blog called The Havok Journal and posted the following quote to Facebook a few days ago:
"I don’t want them here because I am tired of watching the people of the ‘religion of peace’ run to countries they ostensibly hate when they need help because they refuse to stand up for themselves."
That pretty much summed up my initial reaction and thoughts to the entire issue. I had seen the above video a few years ago and found it very touching. In the midst of this refugee controversy I went back and watched it again today.
I have a hard time watching this video and then saying that I don't want this girl and her family to come to America. In fact, I can't say that at all.
I realized that my biggest issue surrounding Syrian refugees isn't the refugees, but my lack of trust and faith in the leadership of America. I believe Obama is a sham and a disgrace to America - and I cannot trust him or his administration to determine if the people they are letting in are coming in the name of peace or jihad.
This led me to think a little deeper. Refugees are the "what" and we are all wondering "what" we should do with them and "what" we can do to help them. But what we should be asking ourselves is "why". Why are there refugees in the first place?
These people are refugees because there is a group of people in the Middle East who are slaughtering everyone that does not believe they way they do and attempting to create a country based upon those beliefs. They are evil and they are "why" refugees exist. They are the people who would shoot your 12 year old daughter in the back because you don't go to the same church that they do. I have a daughter around the same age as this girl and watching this video tugs at my heart and makes me want to do a little shooting myself...
So why don't we focus on the "why" and deal with the "why"? I'm not so idealistic and naive as to believe the world can be entirely rid of evil, but why should we tolerate it? The common and simple answer to that question is that America should not become the world police. People should stand up for themselves and deal with evil in their own country. We shouldn't send our young men and women over there to risk their lives. I feel this way a lot of the time, but I'm finding this belief is beginning to change.
I could ask the same question. Why should I police the county where I work? I'm fully capable of defending my home and family. I was an urban combat instructor in the military. If someone breaks into my home, they won't survive the experience. So why should I risk my life for people I don't even know and for people who don't even like me or what I represent?
I will bring home about $31,000 this year for what I do. After surviving one near death experience after another, I sometime question my sanity. OK, so the county pays me a little bit, but do you really think that's why I do it?
Last night we got a 911 call. A drunk man was in a fight with his girlfriend. She had been able to lock him out of the house and he was outside banging on the door. We were told that he usually has a gun on him. It was another recipe for disaster.
I arrived first and the suspect had fled the scene in his vehicle. He was later located and taken to jail. But my point in telling this story is why would I risk my life responding to such a potentially dangerous situation. I didn't know the woman. She was no family or friend of mine. So why should I deal with her problems? Why can't she stand up and protect herself?
The reason I do what I do is because I have the ability and capacity to do it and it's the right thing to do. It usually has very little to do with the people involved. In fact, many times the people we risk our lives to protect hate cops. How's that for irony? We do it because it's the right thing to do. We do it because evil is evil - even when it's perpetrated upon people that hate you or should be able to do something about it themselves.
America should stand up to evil, anywhere in the world, because we have the ability and capacity to do it and because it's the right thing to do. The fight will never be over. It will be a continual game of "Whack a Mole", but every time evil lifts its nasty head, someone should be there to smack it back down and "if not me, then who". If not American, then who?
There is good and evil in this world. And while we talk about serving and protecting and how "greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends" it's not always that idealistic. It's usually just the right thing to do and I have the ability to do it.
If someone goes into your kids school and starts shooting them, you'd expect me and those like me, to go in there and stop (kill) the evil person doing it. Can you imagine the outrage if we showed up, evacuated as many of the kids out of the building and then just said, "well, those are dangerous people in there and we have them contained to that building. Let's just find a new school for the kids that we were able to evacuate and there's just not much we can do for the kids still trapped inside - we can't go around saving every one."
We can't save everyone, but we need to focus on why this problem exists and deal with it the best we can. Maybe the purpose of America is to be the world police and do everything we can to stand against evil where ever it exists. Often the people that hate cops end up seeing that we're not so bad when we show up and help them. Our service to them changes the way they feel about us. Maybe the way to help people in the Middle East stop hating America is to help them stand up to the evil that is murdering and torturing their loved ones. We have an all volunteer military. If that kind of work isn't for you, then don't worry about it. They people who sign up to do it understand why they are doing it. Because it's the right thing to do and they have the ability to do something about it.
The Book of Mormon teaches, "Therefore, my beloved brother, Moroni, let us resist evil, and whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words, yea, such as rebellions and dissensions, let us resist them with our swords, that we may retain our freedom, that we may rejoice in the great privilege of our church, and in the cause of our Redeemer and our God." (Alma 61:14)
The world is simply not big enough anymore for people that slaughter anyone who doesn't believe the way they do. There are no "COEXIST" bumper stickers in the Middle East (only on peoples' cars in the West who are protected by someone else!) You either believe the way they do or they cut your head off. How do you "COEXIST" with people like that?
There is no simple answer. Let's bring in the refugees and help their children learn to love America so they won't walk into shopping malls and movie theaters with suicide vests. Maybe it will work... but let's do something about WHY they - and we - are having this problem in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment