The Providence Journal (R.I.), Sept. 20:
The refugee crisis in Europe has distressed goodhearted people everywhere. So it is positive news that President Obama has raised to 10,000 the number of Syrians who will be allowed into this country over the next year. Fleeing four years of civil war, Syrians account for roughly half the human tide now seeking asylum in Europe. With no end to the conflict in sight, their numbers are only expected to grow over the next several months.
While America – long a generous supporter of humanitarian causes – is doing more than some other countries capable of helping, the crisis cries out for an even greater effort. Some 500,000 migrants have arrived in Europe this year, overwhelming any kind of concerted effort to assess their claims and provide temporary shelter. From that perspective, 10,000 is a token number.
For obvious reasons, the United States sharply lowered the number of refugees it would admit after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Yet while those numbers have since edged higher, applicants still face exhaustive screening that can take up to two years. Thus it is highly doubtful that America will be flooded with potential terrorists from Syria, a fear some critics cite in arguing against extending a helping hand.
Arguments about which nations are most to blame for instability in the Middle East and elsewhere must not become an excuse for inaction. Even a modest effort from the United States could nudge Europe toward greater cooperation and shared solutions. Along with accepting a few more refugees, the United States should aid countries struggling to handle the influx. (Thus far, aid for Syrians who fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq has been underfunded. The need of these people, including young children, is great.)
Unfortunately, Europe’s response to the crisis has fallen apart in recent days. Negotiations overseen by the European Union stalled, as poorer countries (mostly in Eastern Europe) balked at a proposal assigning each nation a mandatory quota of refugees. In the aftermath, several nations tightened border controls, threatening the free travel that has long been a source of European pride.
It does not help that Russia, meanwhile, has deliberately increased tensions by massing military equipment in Syria. So far, it has backed President Bashar Assad, whose brutal attacks on his own people have forced millions to flee, many to nearby refugee camps. Others are now bypassing those camps, and heading straight for Europe. Punishing and destabilizing the West is obviously high on the to-do list of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The diplomatic challenges faced by Western countries are not just intricate. In the long run, they are essential to solving the refugee crisis. Those who have risked so much to reach safety have dramatized the stakes as nothing else could. Order in Europe is inseparable from peace elsewhere.
The Telegraph (N.H.), Sept. 25:
Pope Francis spoke to a joint session of Congress, but he was really talking over their heads to the American people.
We hope people were listening, because the pope has something Congress lacks: credibility.
The approval rating for the pope was well north of 50 percent in some recent polls, and even higher among voters who identified themselves as Catholic; meanwhile, Congress as a whole has languished in the teens for months as the parties bicker among themselves.
That would include members like Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a Catholic who boycotted the pope’s appearance because he didn’t like the message.
“When the pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one,” Gosar said on the website townhall.com.
Perhaps it was all that talk about family.
“I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without,” said His Holiness. “Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.”
Yeah, that’s real left-wing stuff there.
More likely, Gosar knew the pontiff was going to make the outrageous suggestion that our country respond to refugees “in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome.”
That right there could be Congress’ motto: “We discard whatever proves troublesome.”
When, after all, was the last time Congress worked together to pass legislation that moved the human condition forward to any significant degree?
His Holiness isn’t running for office, isn’t asking for anything besides prayers and doesn’t get paid by lobbyists to espouse a particular point of view.
No wonder some politicians hate him.
Because he’s not in anyone’s pocket, he is free to warn against climate change, call for the abolition of the death penalty and warn against the type of absolutism – religious, political and otherwise – that lumps people and causes into strict categories of right and wrong.
“We must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners.”
He might as well have been addressing the Republicans and Democratic parties themselves and those operatives who see political gain as its own reward.
The pope addressed a joint session of Congress, but he really spoke to working class people striving to get ahead, to seniors, and to young people swimming against an economic tide that is rigged to promote income equality.
It’s just as well. It’s not likely Congress heard him anyway.
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