Wisdom, not fear

Count me among Arkansans who congratulate Asa Hutchinson for joining with more than half the nation's governors in refusing to accept the thousands of "refugees" from ISIS-infested Syria.

As the former director of border security for the Department of Homeland Security, Governor Hutchinson acted correctly in saying don't bring this President Barack Obama-sponsored risk and uncertainty into the communities of this relatively small state.

Those who disagree say that, in the interest of compassion and giving America its tired, poor, huddled masses, we should roll over, trust and invite thousands upon thousands of those fleeing Syria freely across our borders. Notice how some in the Obama-supportive media predictably smeared and demonized those who won't go along as "frightened" people who are woefully misguided in their lack of empathy and understanding.

Our president even added his own demeaning, calling the collective governors' protective position "hysterical" because they won't go along with his plan.

You likely will recall that "huddled masses" quote is inscribed on our Statue of Liberty given to our nation by France in 1886. Yes, that would be the same France where hundreds of its citizens recently were murdered or maimed by Islamic radicals. The same France that has now closed its borders out of self-preservation and understandably declared all-out war on the savages, a war against pure evil our nation has so far declined to join in full force alongside the French.

So I say that the huddled-masses argument is not only naïve baloney, but an example of dangerous good intentions. I'm not frightened. Are you? Yet I can recognize a proven threat to life and liberty in radical Islam when I see it. Can't you? And I feel not a twinge of guilt.

After all, how many severed heads, people burned alive, women and children slaughtered does it take? How many flagrant threats against our nation?

Those who don't want this Obama relocation and invasion plan, including more than 30 governors and many in Congress, are wise and justifiably cautious in protecting the people who elected them to protect and defend the Constitution of our nation.

It has nothing to do with a lack of compassion, but rather a discernment of reality and an unwillingness to be led into believing scores of thousands of Muslim "refugees" are simply innocents yearning to be free. Granted, many are women and children. But the animals of ISIS also regularly use them as human bombs to kill and maim in the name of their ideology. That alone is enough to create justifiable uncertainty and unacceptable risk.

That brings us to the matter of properly vetting thousands of those fleeing. The same government that had given us Fast and Furious, the Veterans Affairs medical scandals, Benghazi, those missing emails, the IRS scandal, the scourge of Obamacare on Christmas Eve night and countless other deceptions, says it can adequately check each and every one. Trust us! Oh, really?

That's also not at all what the FBI has been saying. Neither does it address the fact that the 13 murdered and more than 30 injured by the Islamic radical major at Fort Hood, the three dead and 264 maimed in Boston, the 3,000 killed during 9/11 and now hundreds murdered and injured in Paris, some of whom reportedly were among "refugees," required fewer than 30 radical Muslims wildly shrieking "Allahu akbar!"

Why weren't those killers properly vetted? Well? Why not?

We know from experience it takes a few evil people to create enormous carnage here. These savages take advantage of our free and open society. And it should be painfully clear by every American that the extremists most assuredly want each of us dead along with our children. They cannot be rehabbed or redeemed. The carnage they inflict is embedded in their hearts and souls, my friends. Such evil must be encountered and overcome, whether you embrace that fact or not.

Yet, our Supreme Court has determined the president of our democratic republic has virtually dictatorial power over who's allowed into America as "refugees." I'd say, all things considered in developments since 9/11, that's certainly not what our founders would have intended had they known how this scenario is playing out.

I say scenario because, like many other Americans, rightly or wrongly, this fleeing massive "refugee" thing has the smell and feel to me, based on social media and reader comments, of possibly a far larger, more calculated plan unfolding across Europe and now infiltrating, thanks to this president, our nation. Why would those of such a widely different culture and belief system want to enter Europe and the United States rather than seek asylum in one of 50 Muslim nations?

Regardless of how this conflict winds up, those elected officials who've taken an oath to protect and defend the citizens of our country yet support bringing these many thousands into our various communities will face their electorates. And God help them should even a few "refugees" indeed prove to be planted with the intent of murdering Americans. Any responsibility for the blood of innocents will be on those officials' hands.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.

Editorial on 11/21/2015

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