We Are No Longer Trusted?

Are We Becoming The People We Want To Be?

Surfers in Southern California.  To be surfing is a far cry from trudging through the snow to willingly be arrested because of fear of how the United States will handle your refugee status.  Do we want the world to view us as a country that instills fear in those who need our help?

Occasionally the news makes me angry.   There are items in the news, which I find disgusting or revolting.  But Saturday morning I came across a story, which I found so extraordinary, it simply left me sad.  Refugees are afraid of how the United States refugee system will handle their cases and would rather take their chances with the Canadian refugee system.

Following are a couple of links to stories, but there are more from all the news services.  Just Goggle Canadian Border.

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/17/515662976/migrants-choose-arrest-in-canada-over-staying-in-the-u-s

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-02-17/refugees-are-freezing-flee-us-canada

These refugees are braving the snow and deadly freezing temperatures choosing to illegally enter Canada.  They willingly turn themselves over to the Canadian authorities because they are afraid of what will happen to them in the hands of the American refugee system.

When I was in grade school, many years ago we were taught the engraving from American poet Emma Lazarus on the base of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.  "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!"

What I find troubling is not that the refugees are leaving.  What bothers and saddens me is these refugees do not trust us to do the right thing.  They have come to our country looking for escape from tyranny and oppression.   Have we reached a point where the Untied States government cannot be trusted to be fair, impartial and honest in its dealing with people? 

To think we have driven opinion of ourselves so low in the eyes of others. 

We have only ourselves to blame.  Which also means we have the ability to change. 

But how do we change our perspective?  It starts with us.  It starts at home with the each of us. 

I need to understand the life basics which I find important.   From understanding myself, I can grasp those basics that are fundamental to my life (ie. family, friends, safety, security, liberty, justice, opportunity, etc.).  The next step is for me to learn how to give those basics to all.  In the process of lifting others, we lift ourselves.