Did I say I wanted open borders? No, I didn't. Did I say I wanted to exclude whole populations? No I didn't
By the way, the bill for potential "refugees" is considering refugees from all over the world, not just Syria. How many refugees does the United States admit? Each year the President, in consultation with Congress, determines the numerical ceiling for refugee admissions. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, the proposed ceiling is 85,000 http://www.state.gov/j/prm/releases/docsforcongress/247770.htm. Refugee Ceilings and Admitted Refugees to the United States, FY 2009-2015 (Source: Refugee Processing Center http://www.wrapsnet.org/Reports/AdmissionsArrivals) Over one-third of all refugee arrivals (35.1 percent http://www.wrapsnet.org/Reports/AdmissionsArrivals, or 24,579) in FY 2015 came from the Near East/South Asia—a region that includes Iraq, Iran, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. Another third of all refugee arrivals (32.1 percent, or 22,472) in FY 2015 came from Africa. Over a quarter of all refugee arrivals (26.4 percent, or 18,469) in FY 2015 came from East Asia — a region that includes China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Are you not understanding that the majority of Syrian refugees applying are women and children? Are you not understanding that it is a vetting process that takes up to TWO YEARS as currently structured? Mike, these are the facts! What are you making up in your head? Yes, ISIS is a terrorist group and they are engaging in terrorist activities and it's a real bummer for everyone. I am sure that we will do our best as a nation to keep terrorists out. As we are doing currently. Honestly, Mike, I believe strongly we need to take stock of our domestic situation. My priorities are different though. Building a wall for billions and billions of dollars is not even on the list. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : The latest Omnibus spending bill has funding for up to 300,000 refugees over the next few years. Doesn't mean there will be that many but the potential is there.The FBI has said there is no way to thoroughly vet these refugees. There are no public records available on them. All public records in Syria have been destroyed due to the war. ISIS also captured a passport office in Syria and has thousands of blank Passports. ISIS has openly threatened to send their people here as they have done in Europe. There is no point in admitting people here if we don't know who they are and the FBI has admitted there is no way to really know who each refugee is. As for a wall, so you want open borders. Let Mexico and central America send anyone and everyone( you did say whole populations, didn't you) they want with no restraints. WTF wouldn't come?Why not several hundred million Indians and Chinese?With populations in the billions, they wouldn't miss a few. I bet they need jobs and just want to improve their lives also. Why even bother to make them come here to improve their lives? Why not just tax the hell out of everybody here and send the money to people in their native countries where the dollars will go further? Better yet, if you want to be *enriched* by their cultures , why don't you just go live with them. From: "emily.mae50@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2016 9:53 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Pope - Again You and I support the same thing theoretically; I support a *controlled* entry and exit of foreigners also. Absolutely. SO DOES THE UNITED STATES. It's why I carry a passport when I travel; other countries do too. We can't be the world's safety net and we aren't, with respect to the Syrian refugees. Remember that Obama, whom you despise doesn't think we should be the world's policeman either and has been working to build coalitions from the get go in the Middle East. This what is so funny to me. LOOK AT THE NUMBERS, MIKE (It's in the fact sheet I posted to you) and try and convince me there are hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, every one a potential terrorist, invading our borders unfairly. The majority are staying in the Middle East, first of all. "A total of 2,290 Syrian refugees have arrived in the United States since fiscal year 2011, which is when the Syrian civil war began https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33487.pdf, through Nov. 20, according to the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center http://www.wrapsnet.org/Reports/InteractiveReporting/tabid/393/EnumType/Report/Default.aspx?ItemPath=/rpt_WebArrivalsReports/MX%20-%20Arrivals%20by%20Nationality%20and%20Religion. “It’s very important for people to know there’s a big, big difference between the relative chaotic scene we’ve seen played out in Europe and the resettlement process in the United States,” Boian said." "The way it works is that after the State Department has approved a refugee for resettlement in the U.S. — a process http://www.rcusa.org/uploads/pdfs/Refugee%20resettlement%20-%20step%20by%20step%20USCRI.pdf that can take up to two years — the refugee is referred to one of nine domestic resettlement agencies http://www.state.gov/j/prm/ra/receptionplacement/index.htm, each with a network of affiliates fanned across the country. It is those resettlement agencies — which gather weekly — that make decisions about where to place new, incoming refugees. The chief consideration is whether the refugee has family ties in the United States, said Matthew Soerens, a spokesman for World Relief, one of the nine resettlement agencies http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/resource/voluntary-agencies. If a refugee does, every effort is made to place that person near relatives. That is why, he said, larger numbers of Syrian refugees are placed in Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and California, where there are small pockets of Syrian Americans. Absent family ties in the U.S., Soerens said, the agencies try to relocate people where there are available jobs. Each of the nine resettlement agencies works with its network of affiliates spread across the country. In the case of World Relief, an evangelical organization, that network is often through evangelical church organizations." I also believe in the need to integrate refugees into our society and I think we have a responsibility to assist. I also know that employing extremist measures (e.g., building a wall or refusing entry to whole populations) is nothing less than the product of fear and completely irrational. What we need for all our citizens and those immigrating both are education, affordable housing and living wages, I agree. Living off of welfare benefits is virtually impossible and I'm guessing very, very, few people have that intention or even know enough to know how to attempt it. It's comical. One will spend years in shelters before one gets federal, subsidized, housing here, which is still pro-rated for income. Food benefits are less than $200/month here per individual and require a half-time job. Just try to get a specialized doctor to accept the medicaid version of Obamacare. Did you ever try to live on minimum wage? I did. Thank God education was cheaper back then and I didn't end up starting off with $30,000 in debt, like kids are now. You really are an "us and them" kind of a guy. And "they" are the enemy. Ever meditate with the Quakers? Might be a good experience to hook up with a different crowd and practice changing your perceptions. Change is the only constant, after all. Staying stuck in your views will only bring you pain and suffering and rage and anger and intolerance and impatience and greed and etc. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : Yes Emily, we live in totally different worlds.You, in how you think it should be and me, how it actually functions. I support a *controlled* entry and exit of foreigners. We have to know *who* is coming in and what their intentions are. And we can't be the world's safety net. There are literally hundreds of millions of people in the world that would love to come here and suck off the big tit of the American government and maybe try to make it if they can. At what point do YOU say *enough*! From: "emily.mae50@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2016 4:22 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Pope - Again We live in two different worlds, Mike. I don't envy you yours. Closing our borders to________(Who? Everyone from the Middle East and Mexico?)___________, which seems to be what you are now promoting below, will not stop terrorism. If you read the facts, the US right now is letting in very, very, few refugees (those fleeing from terror, let us remember) and those that are let in go through an arduous vetting process. My heart aches for every suicide bombing, that I can assure you of. "A breakaway Pakistani faction of the militant Taliban group has claimed responsibility for an Easter Sunday bombing in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed 65 people. Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, told the Associated Press that a suicide bomber with the faction deliberately targeted the Christian community." In the world of Christianity, "Christ is risen" and the faithful will ascend to be with Christ upon their death. Let us hope their families can take some comfort in this. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : Emily, your naivety astounds me. Numerous Somali refugees once living in Wisconsin have already traveled to the middle east to join up with ISIS. You have the Tzarneav brothers responsible for the Boston bombings and the married couple in California from Pakistan and others I can't even remember. Numerous *refugee* from Syria and elsewhere are being caught sneaking across the southern border from Mexico. Nobody knows how many have not been caught or what their true intentions are. How many Paris or Brussels type attacks in the US do we have to have for you to wake up. I have no intentions of letting my country go the same route Europe has gone.News just broke about a suicide bombing in Pakistan by Taliban, killing numerous women and children, mostly Christian celebrating Easter. From: "emily.mae50@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2016 11:37 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Pope - Again Mike, you continue to be so far off base in your statements on refugees that are being allowed to come here, it's incredible. You simply never adjust your position to reflect the facts; you rigidly adhere to what you *think* and then wallow in self-righteousness, despite all evidence to the contrary. Fascinates me, really, as so many, like you adopt this different perception of reality. Your mind seems a very frightened place. Facts about the Syrian Refugees http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/facts-about-the-syrian-refugees/ http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/facts-about-the-syrian-refugees/ Facts about the Syrian Refugees http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/facts-about-the-syrian-refugees/ The Paris bombings and other recent terrorist attacks have given rise to a political debate within the United States about the Obama administration’s plan ... View on www.factcheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/facts-about-the-syrian-refugees/ Preview by Yahoo ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : Right, there is *intent* to play the emotions, especially when you show bloodied children and lifeless bodies. What's the saying... A picture is worth a thousand words. The the next step is that we have to bring them all here into our communities or we are heartless bastards. Just as you predictably pointed out, the excuse is, *They will enrich our communities with diversity* That's just pure BS! There is no way to accurately vet who is coming, what their intent is, how or even if, they will adapt to a foreign culture. Meanwhile, ISIS is infiltrating the ranks of genuine refugees, intent on doing as much harm as they can. Other refugees, not all mind you, who may not be terrorists are exactly what liberals proclaim to hate... violent, misogynistic, homophobic , anti -Semitic, xenophobic bastards that are convinced that they are superior to anyone else. But then, how many women marry a man they are attracted to for some reason, knowing he has many faults that she can't stand but is convinced that she can *change* him. Sorry Anne, bringing large numbers of foreign people here that can't be properly vetted, especially from cultures that have a strong tendency to *not* assimilate and think your culture is inferior is a bad idea. It's a far better idea to put pressure on neighboring countries to absorb the refugees until things settle down. Western and European countries could help foot the bill although the oil rich countries should be able to handle it. From: "awoelflebater@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2016 8:20 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Pope - Again ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : No one has said anything about *design* to trick anybody. A wealthy person can give all that he has to help the poor and then become poor himself. What has he accomplished? Feeding a bunch of people for a day and then making himself poor as well, At that point, he becomes a victim as well, needing help himself. This is not being smart, not how he became wealthy in the first place. Better to have a strategy that helps all and doesn't hurt anyone. The first rule of the Hippocratic oath is *do no harm*, neither to the patient nor the doctor. A dead doctor doesn't heal anyone! I'm sure Europe doesn't want to go through those bombed out buildings again. No, you used the word "intent" which implies some sort of manipulation of the viewer through the use of these photos. These are journalistic photographs of what is going on, not some staged actors playing the part of victims accompanied by saccharine background music. You can either accept it or not. You can either turn away or not. You can either put yourself mentally/imaginatively in these people's situation or not and try and understand the fear, the uncertainty, the devastation. You can realize that other humans seeking refuge from such horrendous war conditions need help or you might not. You could, certainly, conceive of the fact that human beings coming to this big country we call "America" might add diversity, richness and more humanity instead of having a decimating effect on what you perceive of as "America" or not. It is your choice, your ability or inability or willingness or unwillingness to accept this possibility which determines your status as either compassionate or narrow and small - living in fear and constriction. From: "awoelflebater@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2016 8:40 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Pope - Again ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : This is exactly what I'm referring to when I say *the heart*. All emotion. Such pictures tug on the *heart strings*. The intent is to evoke compassion , for those affected, the desire to help. Nothing wrong with that! Just don't create more and bigger problems with the solution! Don't destroy what you have in the name of helping others out of their unfortunate circumstances. Mike, these images are what they are. They aren't "designed" to do anything - they are what is happening, they are not staged or embellished. Bombed out cities really exist in Syria, real blood is being spilled, families are being decimated. This isn't some fiction made up in Hollywood - these are images captured on camera by journalists. Your final sentence is self serving and remarkably selfish. Don't inconvenience yourself or threaten your own comfort by putting yourself out for others who are in danger of losing their lives. No siree, let's just make sure we all have our daily bread and our creature comforts and the rest of those poor sods be damned; fend for yourselves you unlucky bastards. From: "awoelflebater@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, March 25, 2016 8:51 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Pope - Again ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : Maharishi also speaks in the Gita about the balance of heart and mind. One should not rule over the other. If we are all compassionate without thinking things through, we get ourselves in trouble. If we are all mind and intellect, we lose our full potential as humans. There needs to be a balance.Maharishi said Arjuna had a rare balance of both heart and mind. He didn't want to fight and kill his own family and loved ones but he also knew the consequences of not doing his duty. In the end, Arjuna performs his duty and fulfills his dharma. Nobody wants entire populations uprooted and moved into foreign, both culturally and physically, new locations that cause conflict for everyone involved, yet this is the result of past policies in the EU. Europeans are rethinking what they have done and realizing being open and unconditionally welcoming without thinking things through wasn't the smartest move for either migrants or their local populations. There have got to be better ways that have not been explored yet. Well, when you think of what those "better ways" might be have a look at what these fellow human beings are fleeing from/dealing with.
