ISIS is a monster and must be gone. Fighting terrorism has to be a No. 1 priority.
Sadly though, instead of closing ranks, we have a raging political imbroglio going on. Republican legislators, employing their usual fear and hatred tactics, would slam the door on Middle Eastern refugees, especially Syrians.
What we have is another dark ethnic interlude dotting an American historical landscape otherwise proud of its diversity. We call it Xenophobia. It was there in the 1840s against Irish-Catholics fleeing the Ireland potato famine, there in early WWII with the European Jews running from the coming Holocaust and there for American citizens of Japanese descent.
Republican politicos are demanding iron-clad certification, 100 percent assurance and a pause for Syrian refugee entry. A rigid refugee screening system in place for 14 years gives us as much assurance as one could reasonably expect from a terrorist threat. Get this: since 9/11, out of 750,000 refugees admitted to the U.S., not one has the terrorist taint.
If the Gov. Pence people want absolute secluded safety, maybe they should try one of Monroe county’s caves. They’d probably drown, though, with the first rainstorm as the cave flooded. I’d take my changes with a Syrian refugee family.
Seriously, let’s not lose sight of who we are.
Jerry Gregory
IU alumnus
