Yep. That's America. I'm just gonna write some thoughts down here from a "This American Life" podcast I heard yesterday. I'm sure I have a few details wrong. But you can listen to it for yourself here. Episode 607.
Imagine you are young child, a boy, and you are living in Iraq. All of the sudden your mom or dad leaves home for 27 days each month to go work the US Army as a translator and information gatherer. Your mom does so good at her job and gathers more special intel than anyone in the history of the unit. Your dad goes and fights against ISIS and is killed. Those that killed him were overheard celebrating that they they killed your dad. Because he was the husband of your mom.
Your mom was a hero for the US.
And when the US pulls out of Iraq, she becomes an enemy of ISIS. And she is denied entry to the US. DENIED ENTRY. She was a hero and a saved hundreds, if not thousands of American lives. But because she was falsely accused by an anonymous source that she had ties to isis, this is on her record. This case was also thrown out in court by an American judge for having insufficient evidence.
While in jail for this false accusation, $20,000 from her living quarters was stolen from her. She couldn't keep it in a bank, banks weren't safe. But yet, she still protects her family when she gets out.
She takes you and your siblings to Jordan to live. If she hadn't, you'd all be dead. You won't be growing up with an education. You won't have a good life at all now. It will be the same old....
All because, despite the letters of recommendation from hundreds of AMERICAN Soldiers, immigration control won't let her in because of that one tiny proven false accusation.
How do you feel about America? I'd be upset. I'd be furious. My mom laid her life on the line for America and now we are being treated like shit and being denied access to safety. Because if it wasn't for my mom...America wouldn't have had the success it did. Many more would have died.
I'd probably end up not giving a shit about America and maybe even want to get back at them. Anger would grow.
We used them. Even if they were never gauranteed anything other than a paycheck, their lives are now at risk because of the help they gave us. And we left them for dead. Is that what we do? Leave people that help us for dead?
I don't believe these are unique stories. I believe there are hundreds of thousands of stories like this. Our own fear of welcoming people is most likely the very thing that will create what we are afraid of.
Just thinking out loud. I know there is always more to every story. But I feel people like Sarah, the woman in the podcast, deserve a first class ticket with her and her children to America.
What kind of reputation are we leaving? Do you even know? I don't.
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