(Here's a link to the article: !)
So before I even begin, I guess I should start for the inspiration behind my article choice. I've been keeping up with the Syrian refugee crisis recently, especially with all the added coverage it's been getting in the media after three-year-old Aylan Kurdi's body washed up on a Turkey resort after a failed smuggling attempt. But I really started actively thinking about the issue a few days ago when my AP Government teacher, Bobbi Rodriguez, spent half of class teaching us about the situation. She showed us pictures from the conflict, including the especially heart-breaking one of Kurdi's body on the beach. I have an eight-year-old brother, so a part of me couldn't help but imagine him in that same situation; although I couldn't ever truly understand what Abdullah Kurdi, Aylan's father, is currently going through after losing his children and wife, I can imagine how terrible it must be to know that such precious lives have been wiped out so early.
One of the best parts of the John Green Refugee Crisis video Mrs. Rodriguez showed us was how he explained why paying attention to this issue is so important. People can say that we need to focus on problems back home as much as we want, but in a world as globalized and connected as ours, anyone's problem can become our problem. It's not the 18th century, where people in the Americas would have no idea if there was a huge war going on in China. This is the modern day, where an Ebola outbreak in Liberia can quickly become an outbreak in Nigeria then an outbreak in America and Spain and on and on. As Mrs. Rodriguez told us, there's no reason why I couldn't have been born as a Syrian girl. There's no reason why I can wake up every morning and know that I'm not going to be killed by my own government when Syrians face the risk of chemical warfare and bombings every single day. It's just not fair.
But anyways, moving on to this specific article. This article from The New York Times discusses President Obama's recent decision to increase the amount of refugees allowed in America from less than 2,000 to 10,000 over the course of the next year due to "increasing pressure to demonstrate that the United States is joining European nations in the effort to resettle refugees." The article goes on to present both sides: some are afraid that by accepting refugees, America will further provoke ISIS, and others argue that 10,000 is an embarrassingly small number of people to accept when other countries much worse off economically are accepting hundreds of thousands or millions of people.
I have to say, I agree with the latter of those two arguments.
I mean, the only way not to "provoke" ISIS would be to do absolutely nothing, and that's just out of the issue. When scores of other countries, from Germany to Venezuela, are giving their support to the fleeing refugees, the United States needs to step us as a world leader. I usually find myself rolling my eyes when people describe the USA as "the greatest nation on earth" or a "superpower," but in some ways, it's kind of true. We need to set examples for other nations and further fortify the nations supporting the refugees. Furthermore, it's more a question of right and wrong than anything else. Essentially, ignoring the fleeing Syrians would be pure evil. Their blood is on our hands. Whether it's increasing our dismal limit of refugees or sending monetary aid, we need to do something. However, it looks like we will be helping out some more, as Secretary of State John Kerry said "at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill that the total number of refugees taken in by the United States could rise to more than 100,00, from the current figure of 70,000."
It doesn't matter if you live in the suburbs of College Station or war-torn Syria. We're all humans. Why all have dreams, fears, desires, hopes. Why can't we remember that?
So before I even begin, I guess I should start for the inspiration behind my article choice. I've been keeping up with the Syrian refugee crisis recently, especially with all the added coverage it's been getting in the media after three-year-old Aylan Kurdi's body washed up on a Turkey resort after a failed smuggling attempt. But I really started actively thinking about the issue a few days ago when my AP Government teacher, Bobbi Rodriguez, spent half of class teaching us about the situation. She showed us pictures from the conflict, including the especially heart-breaking one of Kurdi's body on the beach. I have an eight-year-old brother, so a part of me couldn't help but imagine him in that same situation; although I couldn't ever truly understand what Abdullah Kurdi, Aylan's father, is currently going through after losing his children and wife, I can imagine how terrible it must be to know that such precious lives have been wiped out so early.
One of the best parts of the John Green Refugee Crisis video Mrs. Rodriguez showed us was how he explained why paying attention to this issue is so important. People can say that we need to focus on problems back home as much as we want, but in a world as globalized and connected as ours, anyone's problem can become our problem. It's not the 18th century, where people in the Americas would have no idea if there was a huge war going on in China. This is the modern day, where an Ebola outbreak in Liberia can quickly become an outbreak in Nigeria then an outbreak in America and Spain and on and on. As Mrs. Rodriguez told us, there's no reason why I couldn't have been born as a Syrian girl. There's no reason why I can wake up every morning and know that I'm not going to be killed by my own government when Syrians face the risk of chemical warfare and bombings every single day. It's just not fair.
But anyways, moving on to this specific article. This article from The New York Times discusses President Obama's recent decision to increase the amount of refugees allowed in America from less than 2,000 to 10,000 over the course of the next year due to "increasing pressure to demonstrate that the United States is joining European nations in the effort to resettle refugees." The article goes on to present both sides: some are afraid that by accepting refugees, America will further provoke ISIS, and others argue that 10,000 is an embarrassingly small number of people to accept when other countries much worse off economically are accepting hundreds of thousands or millions of people.
I have to say, I agree with the latter of those two arguments.
I mean, the only way not to "provoke" ISIS would be to do absolutely nothing, and that's just out of the issue. When scores of other countries, from Germany to Venezuela, are giving their support to the fleeing refugees, the United States needs to step us as a world leader. I usually find myself rolling my eyes when people describe the USA as "the greatest nation on earth" or a "superpower," but in some ways, it's kind of true. We need to set examples for other nations and further fortify the nations supporting the refugees. Furthermore, it's more a question of right and wrong than anything else. Essentially, ignoring the fleeing Syrians would be pure evil. Their blood is on our hands. Whether it's increasing our dismal limit of refugees or sending monetary aid, we need to do something. However, it looks like we will be helping out some more, as Secretary of State John Kerry said "at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill that the total number of refugees taken in by the United States could rise to more than 100,00, from the current figure of 70,000."
It doesn't matter if you live in the suburbs of College Station or war-torn Syria. We're all humans. Why all have dreams, fears, desires, hopes. Why can't we remember that?