Karla's Kolumn

Living in fear

 

November 21, 2015



An attack in Paris, France on Nov. 13 did more than impact the lives of those in France. It has created a fear and panic in the United States not seen since 9/11.

It wasn’t the attacks themselves that created the terror in the U.S., but rather the fact that just one of the terrorists had come to Paris as a supposed Syrian refugee.

There were calls from presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush to only allow Christian refugees into the country. How was that going to work? Do they think the terrorists would be honest in checking a religious affiliation box? Would they have to take an oath on the Bible?

There’s many, many flaws with this type of thinking. First, not every Muslim is a radical extremist. Second, there has been many atrocities committed throughout history in the name of Christianity. So just because a refugee declares to be a Christian doesn’t make them “safe.” Third, who is going to define Christianity and what will that definition be because nearly every denomination has a different definition of Christianity.

The U.S. House earlier this week passed legislation to slow down the nearly two-year process of vetting refugees already.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a step back to make sure all the proper protocols are in the place, but let’s not go to the extreme and just say no to any refugees at all.

If we close our borders to all refugees then we need to close our borders to any traveler — whether a business traveler, political or tourist. Some of the Paris terrorists were able to come in and out of France with ease. They didn’t need to sneak through as a refugee.

I think the issues with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have been well documented and I don’t think we can fully depend on them to keep us safe.

But if we close our borders will this make us completely safe? No. Not in today’s world, in today’s society. We cannot totally eradicate evil, whether home or abroad.

And, that brings us to the next issue. We can say no to refugees. We can close our borders, but we have already seen tragedy from homegrown terrorists and terrorists who are already living in America — Oklahoma City, Boston Marathon,

While we need to learn from the Paris attacks, we can take steps to prevent them from occurring again in Paris and here. What we don’t need is to act out of fear and we don’t need to overreact.

After 9/11 we had the Patriot Act, passed with overwhelming support. Now we think parts of it go too far, but at the time there were statements made “Anything we need to do to keep us safe.”

We don’t need that kind of thinking because then the terrorists have already won, and perhaps they have, since by their very name their goal is to enact terror and with many of our politicians making decisions out of fear, the terrorists are accomplishing what they set out to do.

Does it mean we can’t be prepared, can’t plan, can’t take some steps to keep us safe? No. What it means is that we shouldn’t go too far to try and be safe.

We must realize that the world we no live in is an unsafe place and we can either choose to live in fear or live in freedom. I choose the latter.

 
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