The country of my birth, Germany, is facing a challenge of before unknown proportions. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, primarily from Syria are streaming into the country. They have great hopes and dreams of a safer, better life. The majority of them have faced loss of all their possessions. Many of their family members have been killed by ruthless killers. They are desperate because there seems to be no way to survive in their own country.
Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor and leader of the government has opened Germany’s doors wide. This remains a risky political move for her. It is expected that the number of people streaming in will climb to over 1.5 million. Many other leaders, even those of her own conservative party do not agree. Yet, Angie, as she’s affectionately known, did what good leaders do. She did what is right, what love, mercy and compassion dictate, not what is politically expedient. People call her naïve, they say she doesn’t have a plan. They insist Germany will lose its identity, that there is a real potential for terrorists to infiltrate the country. All these and many more objections are real possibilities and it is wise not to dismiss caution flags. Still, what are the other options? Should she just close the borders, as most of the other European countries do and instead opt to send some money to the Middle East? Or worse, close the doors and do nothing as most of the world’s richest majority Muslim countries in the Middle East have chosen?
Leaders have to make difficult decisions. It doesn’t mean they don’t see the cost, the potential for trouble. But they carry a conviction that some things are just RIGHT and need to be done. They are willing to accept and deal with the consequences of their decisions.
The United States have a history of welcoming strangers to their land, beginning with the hospitality of the indigenous people of this continent, who by the way suffered severe consequences for their openness. They of all people have legitimate reason to be cautious. But it is not Native people of this land who are objecting to a further influx of those who seek asylum, but those who are immigrants to this nation themselves. The loudest voices cry for protectionism, for fencing our borders. Are they forgetting that they too, (or at least their forefathers) once were strangers in this land?
Like the Nation of Israel, we would do well to remember the words of our Creator, who said: “And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)
It would be right to provide asylum for a greater number of people fleeing the Middle East in this country. After all, this seems to be a historical calling of this nation. Many blessings enjoyed in this nation are due to its kind embrace of strangers, who become partners and fellow citizens.
Perhaps it’s good to remind ourselves of Emma Lazarus’s words, engraved on the Statue of Liberty: “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.”
Post Script: December 9, 2015, TIME MAGAZINE choses Angela Merkel as Person of the Year, stating: “The German chancellor, whose leadership has helped preserve and promote an open, borderless Europe in the face of economic turmoil and an ongoing refugee crisis, is TIME’s 2015 Person of the Year,”
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