We could have had class
by Tom Sullivan
Pope Francis calls on the churches he leads to take in undocumented refugees as the crisis in Europe worsens:
“Faced with the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees who are fleeing death by war and by hunger, and who are on a path toward a hope for life, the Gospel calls us to be neighbors to the smallest and most abandoned, to give them concrete hope,” Francis said.
It’s not enough to say: “Have courage, hang in there,” he added.
“For thousands,” writes Mike Barnicle, “life boils down to a simple decision: risk death where they were born or risk death trying to escape.” Yet the spectacle on the borders and shores of eastern Europe barely registers here.
America is entranced by the man leading the polls for the Grand Old Party’s nomination for president of the United States and who promises to expel millions from this country. That will be a spectacle. He wants to deport them — men, women, and children — to the country a Latina checkout clerk from there recently warned me not to visit “until it’s safe.” Thousands of fans support Donald Trump for his deportation rhetoric alone. They find him “classy.”
Barnicle continues:
In the United States, the calamity consuming Europe is so far just another clip on TV, one more sad story streaming across a screen of a smart phone or a tablet. We have our own problems and our own politicians either trying to light fires or put out one blaze after another over the issue of our own recent immigrants, many here illegally for years without papers.
America sits on its hands. Did we ever lead when it did not involve blowing up things and killing people? One can dimly remember such a spirit, as Barnicle does:
America provided things that form the foundation of who we used to be: the prospect and potential of hope, mercy and freedom for strangers who came carrying not much more than a determination to survive in a big country with a bigger heart. The question is: Who are we now?
Classy? We could have had class.