Mayor Peduto Wants The Syrian Refugees To Come To Pittsburgh (wage, to live)

[fat lou]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I'd rather risk having a terrorist move in next-door to me and kill me via a suicide bomb as I was leaving to do laundry than live with the guilty conscience of helping to condemn thousands of innocent and frightened Syrian women, children, and, yes, MEN to deaths at the hands of ISIS (or is it ISIL?) out of fear of what may or may not be committed by ONE.

One of my neighbors said it perfectly on Facebook in a debate within one of Mayor Peduto's posts. This is the Holocaust of our generation, and what is going on now in Syria is not at all dissimilar to what happened to Jews in Europe in the early-1940's. Syrians who don't stand with ISIS are being slaughtered just like those in Europe who didn't stand with Hitler. Many nations helped Jews escape back then without fear of a Nazi "plant" traveling within groups of refugees as a "sleeper cell" waiting to strike their own nation. What's changed from the 1940's to the 2010's?

Man, everything's the holocaust these days. Last year it was "Turning away kids from Central America is like turning away Jews who tried to escape the holocaust!" This year it's Syrians.
There's a civil war going on over there, they happen all the time. We've gotten ourselves involved in some of them these past few decades, unfortunately. We can't be responsible for the whole world.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by fat lou

Man, everything's the holocaust these days. Last year it was "Turning away kids from Central America is like turning away Jews who tried to escape the holocaust!" This year it's Syrians.
There's a civil war going on over there, they happen all the time. We've gotten ourselves involved in some of them these past few decades, unfortunately. We can't be responsible for the whole world.

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.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The danger of dying due to violent crime is lower now than it has been in decades.







Of course, that doesn't stop Americans from thinking, for some odd reason, crime is high...

That's actually good, it means that the standards of Americans have been rising and they have less toleration for criminal behavior than they did in the past.


They have less toleration for pollution, smog, bigotry and infectious diseases as well.

[Merge]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Correct & you're welcome to that opinion

Ok. I appreciate your honesty.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

That's actually good, it means that the standards of Americans have been rising and they have less toleration for criminal behavior than they did in the past.


They have less toleration for pollution, smog, bigotry and infectious diseases as well.

I agree but there's a fine line between that and paranoia.

[PghYinzer]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Quotas based on country of origin is nothing new.

Right. So we are saying it is based on which countries are no longer safe to accept people from and that France and Belgium should be on that list.


My issue is that no one is standing up saying we should not accept people from France or Belgium. Using a terrorist attack that was carried out in part by French and Belgians as a reason to ban Syrians, means we are not basing it on country of origin, but rather religion.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

Right. So we are saying it is based on which countries are no longer safe to accept people from and that France and Belgium should be on that list.


My issue is that no one is standing up saying we should not accept people from France or Belgium. Using a terrorist attack that was carried out in part by French and Belgians as a reason to ban Syrians, means we are not basing it on country of origin, but rather religion.

And the Belgium & French nationals involved were sons of refugees. The hoops, interviews, tests & $$ involved to immigrate is pretty intensive & time consuming & if one of those nationals had attempted to normally immigrate to the US I'm confident enough red flags (it doesn't take much) would have been raised that they would have been denied.

Sorry that I'm just not confident that refugees with with little to no verifiable background who are not going through the normal immigration channels, (and whom a bloodthirsty enemy has announced they would infiltrate to gain access, which happened in Paris) will be 100% vetted to ensure 100% safety to others wherever they go.

That's the crux of my problem with the idea.

[Merge]

Originally Posted by UKyank

And the Belgium & French nationals involved were sons of refugees. The hoops, interviews, tests & $$ involved to immigrate is pretty intensive & time consuming & if one of those nationals had attempted to normally immigrate to the US I'm confident enough red flags (it doesn't take much) would have been raised that they would have been denied.

Sorry that I'm just not confident that refugees with with little to no verifiable background who are not going through the normal immigration channels, (and whom a bloodthirsty enemy has announced they would infiltrate to gain access, which happened in Paris) will be 100% vetted to ensure 100% safety to others wherever they go.

That's the crux of my problem with the idea.

Sorry that completely eliminating immigration altogether (if that were even possible) will not provide you with your 100% standard of safety. Perhaps consider adding a "panic room" to your house for whenever the immigration crisis reaches our shores.

None of the terrorists are choosing to observe the dictates of "proper vetting" procedures for immigration... they are all going to use deception to infiltrate, and they aren't going to limit themselves to posing as Syrian refugees. Denying sanctuary now to Syrian refugees is not going to keep terrorism or mass violence from occurring in our society. That's a naïve approach, it evades the responsibility for previous US actions, and it's morally reprehensible.

You should consider this... any Syrian refugees are going to be subject to a lot of observation if we allow them sanctuary. At least you'd have an idea of where to look for potential terrorists. The terrorists who successfully enter the US aren't likely to employ so obvious an approach.

[fat lou]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

Can someone explain to me what we would consider a win in this situation? It’s a war with no end, but what result would make people happy? Never another attack? Well that isn’t going to happen. I believe the only way that we can even attempt to win in the war against terrorism is to not change who we are and what we believe in. Again, they want us to react this ways. Terrorism is all about reactions, and sadly our reactions at this point are trending towards the ones that they wanted us to give. Granted they are natural reactions, but in troubled times like these it takes more courage to stand up for what you know is right, than to simply allow ones values and beliefs to collapse in on themselves, and in the end let the terrorist claim the win.

Terrorism is about blowing people up and killing people/destroying buildings. Terrorists win when they pull off a successful attack. Not letting refugees into the country has nothing to do with terrorists winning anything.

[BigPizzaHutFan]

Originally Posted by fat lou

Terrorism is about blowing people up and killing people/destroying buildings. Terrorists win when they pull off a successful attack. Not letting refugees into the country has nothing to do with terrorists winning anything.

Terrorism is about changing the behavior of a state or nation via fear. The people killed and property destroyed via terrorism are statistically insignificant compared to any organized act of war. The entire point is fear, thus the name.