Let me in... written last year before Thanksgiving and never posted.

I know it is hard to accept that you might be the answer to a big problem.
I know it is hard when I am the answer to a need bigger than I can meet alone.

Before you reject a Syrian neighbor, I suggest you meet a person who is from another home than yours. I suggest you consider what it means to be hopeful that you can start somewhere safe. What is it like to leave everything crushed behind you. People you knew and cared about are just gone...

Then you show up in the "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave" and find the doors locked and the neighbors trembling because you are there and you are different. You long for safety and you are stared at from behind closed doors. You look different. It is hard to communicate. You don't know anyone. They don't want to know you.

I am grieving here in Mozambique, far away from my homeland. I see post after post shared by people I love declaring they have no place for Syrian resettlement. They "hate Obama" and they stand baring arms to protect themselves against the invasion of foreign customs and languages.

Please Stop. Why are you so afraid? Have you thought about it? They haven't come here to take anything away from you. You are listening to the same news feed 24/7 about danger and hatred and fear and possible terrorists. You are locked in your room watching the world burn.

Open your door. Get into one of your cars. Meet someone new and different. Love them. You will find they are just like you. I promise. They are human. They don't bite and curse America. They don't want to change your country into something like the one they left. They want to know what it means to be an American. Don't rob them of knowing what the REAL America is like.

Invite someone to Thanksgiving in your home... they will learn your reason for thankfulness.
Offer to help someone practice English... they will learn your accent!
Risk feeling awkward and not knowing what to say or do. It is ok. You will live.


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