Humans First

We are humans first, citizens second.

Do you really think the IS extremists are going to sit back and allow the rest of the world to help their victims? No! They're going to prevent their victims from having a safe place to turn. Do you really think the refugees are all extremists? If they were, why would they be fleeing? Do you think the terrorists wouldn't think to infiltrate the hordes of actual refugees and cause problems in the countries of refuge? Of course the extremists would want borders closed, so the victims have nowhere to turn. Are we really going to fall for that and turn our backs on thousands of real war refugees because we're afraid some of them might be terrorists? Where is our compassion and courage?

I first came to the "humans first, citizens second" understanding in my reading of No One is Illegal by Justin Akers Chacon, the subject of which concerns Latino immigrants to the United States and the U.S. involvement in their reasons for leaving Latin America. I already felt that way, but I couldn't articulate it. Now, with a cold war on Facebook between the pro-refugee and anti-refugee/anti-Islam factions, I feel it's time to bring it up again.

I've also seen Facebook posts which highlight the hypocrisy of certain conservatives who were quite recently voting against funding various public welfare systems, benefactors of which include homeless veterans. Those same voters are now using the plight of American homeless veterans as reason to bar refugees from the United States. I was annoyed by the "help homeless veterans before 'Syrian rebels'" posts, but when I read about this turnaround in feeling, I became disgusted. Even before I learned of this, I questioned within myself, "Why not help both?" Why does it have to be "either/or?"

It's the same reasoning I used in a discussion with my sister about emergency medical care for immigrants, documented or otherwise. She complained that "illegal aliens" were getting medical care when there are U.S. citizens who don't. Right. The complaint should be not against the human beings who need medical care, but against a government which isn't providing health care to its own people. Why punish the immigrant? It's not their fault the government has chosen one person over another. Health care is a human need and right, both people should be served. 

Why take from one to give to the other? If this is the greatest/richest/best/whateverest country in the world, surely we have the resources to help all our own people and those who come to us for aid. What about all those sickeningly rich people with the ten cars and five houses, whose children and children's children will never have to work in their lives? Who have huge tax cuts? Do we find that fair? They are U.S. citizens, yet their lives are disproportionately easier than those of the majority of U.S. citizens. All of that, apparently, is acceptable, even legal.

Why are the poorest of the poor rejected by "good patriotic citizens," and the richest of the rich, with so much more than they need, are given a free pass? What about the uncountable government dollars spent on the military? What about the corporations, bigger than life and richer than the government? What about the huge sums paid to football players and other athletes, and singers and actors, for our mere entertainment? That's ok, because this is America.

Is someone more worthy of care and assistance because they were born in one country versus another? Because that's what I'm hearing from those who protest aiding the Syrian refugees.

Friends: borders and countries, citizenship and nationality are all human constructions. All arbitrary, and all abstract. When it comes down to it, we all poop. We all pee. We all bleed and we all cry. We all are vulnerable to terrorism, and we all deserve help when we are terrorized. We are all human, before we are anything else. Someone has to sign a birth certificate saying we are this nationality or that race, it doesn't come on a bar code on our behinds. The only things we are born with are our souls, our gender, and our humanity. And we all come into this world equally defenseless.