If you have been on social media lately, or even the news, you will have seen information about the France tragedy and also articles about how there are Syrian refugees seeking safe havens. You might be thinking, “What in the world do these issues have to do with each other?” Simple answer: as I scroll through my own social media, I see friends who are sharing articles or pictures of the states that are not accepting refugees. There is a wide spectrum of those who are for and those who are opposed to this movement. Along with those that are sharing those articles and pictures, there are the people who are making posts about how France is accepting refugees in their country right after this tragedy has happened. Because I am a blogger and I tend to speak my mind on what I think when it comes to these situations, many of my friends have asked me my own personal opinions about this situation.
I do not watch as much of the news I should, and I only rely on what little information Good Morning America provides me. This information is not a ton, but I have gathered enough to make my own personal opinion about this. While most people stand on either side of this debate, I am in the middle. I see pros and cons for both situations and I do not see why others are not able to also stand in the middle, but are told to make a decision on which side they stand. Here are my reasonings for why I think both sides of the issue could be good and bad:
When looking on the side of the people who state that the U.S should not be welcoming refugees in the country, I see pain. This is not pain for the people of the U.S., but pain for those refugees. They cannot help what the people in their country are doing. They may not even be a part of the culture in which we as Americans seem to be placing them. If they are from a middle eastern country, people classify them as Muslim and think that just because they are Muslim, they must be terrorists. Some people are stating that these refugees might be terrorists, but we as Americans should be accepting. We should stop putting all of them in one culture and calling them terrorists. They might not be. They are just people searching for a sovereign and peaceful place to live. They might have lived in terror their entire lives and just cannot take it anymore and are doing whatever they can to escape. Look at it this way: if France, the country that just went through this tragedy, can accept refugees with open arms, then why can’t we?
There is also the other side. The other side is that people don’t want these refugees in the United States. I look at this also and see some pros to this side. To the people that are saying we should refuse the refugees, it does not mean that they don’t want to help the outside world, or the people outside of the United States, but that they want to make sure that the people in the United States are cared for, looked after, protected, and saved before we go and accept more people into our country that we might not be able to protect. This country is known as home of the free and land of the brave, but how can we be free and brave when we are accepting those who may not be a good addition to our country?
Like I said, I do not stand on one side of this debate. I am in the middle, much like most of you may be. It is okay to be in the middle and to find pros and cons of both sides. Just make sure you know your facts before getting in a debate with others about this particular subject.
