the Syrian Refugee Crisis

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Perhaps there is no perfect solution. Perhaps there is no ideal situation. Perhaps there is no good answer to the Syrian Refugee Crisis. However, I was discussing it with a group of friends today and someone brought up a very good point. He reminded us that this panic surrounding the entrance of Syrian Refugees is not new. Just prior to the beginning of World War II and before American involvement, similar feelings rippled throughout the United States with regards to eastern European Jews. In a poll done during that time, 67.4% were opposed to allowing political refugees from Germany and Austria into the United States (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/17/what-americans-thought-of-jewish-refugees-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii/). I understand that we live in a different time with different threats and certainly a new kind of terror that is more clandestine than Hilter's Nazis. However, the plight of the people - whether they were Jewish or are Syrian - has not changed. They all seek refuge from the danger that plagues their homeland. That is not to say that a small number of them did not or are not seeking entrance into this nation with nefarious intentions. I am not so blind as to say that there are not evil people who will use the misfortunes of others to achieve their sinister intentions. However, we cannot deny that the majority of these people are mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers, husbands, grandparents, uncles, and aunts who seek safety and sustenance, the opportunity to live peacefully - just as you or I do. These people see a homeland just as our ancestors once did so many years ago and were able to find safety on these shores. I understand that this issue is complex, our economic infrastructure complicated, our government bogged down with inefficiency; however, should we not seek to find a solution that provides aid without closing our doors? Yes-Provisions and checks must be made for those who are malicious. We must protect our homeland from terror and provide help without causing serious problems to our citizens. However, we cannot turn a blind eye or close our ears and hearts to the cries of the men, women, and children who desperately need our aid. How can we espouse values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and yet deny it to those who desperately seek it? By the end of the Second World War, between 60 and 80 million men, women, and children had perished. How many Syrian refugees will die before the countries of the world, before the United States, will step up and fulfill the ideals that she so proudly proclaims. I do not presume to know the best solution. I do not know how to fix the problem or naively assert that we implement some oversimplified solution. But this I know - something must be done. We cannot sit idly by any longer. No more children should ever wash up on the shores of a nation dead, victims of a deplorable world, snuffed out as their parents fled from evil, struggling towards the hope of a distant shore.

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Emma Lazarus wrote in her poem "the New Colossus" :

"Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand 
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

These words are inscribed on our Statue of Liberty. 

Are they true?

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