October 19, 2016

Madam/Mr. President

I am a person of great understanding. I understand the thoughts, emotions, and motivations that guide the people around me. I understand the laws of biology, chemistry, and (for the most part) physics. I have a clear understanding of nearly all political issues, however, there is one issue that seems to disturb me a little more than the others. Perhaps, it is because I don’t fully understand the opposing side to my position, though, I don’t believe this to be the case. Despite believing myself to be a very open minded, objective person, it could also be that I have my own personal biases that cloud my judgement. Whatever the reason may be, I have never understood what possesses people to have such negative feelings toward immigration and specifically the taking in of refugees to our supposedly welcoming country.

When analyzing any political issue, I tend to use compassion as a weighing mechanism. I choose the side that helps the most people and focuses on real struggles that human beings face. Which is why I can barely bring myself to read statistics of the 9 to 10 million people who have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the Syrian civil war (“By the Numbers”, 2).

Those who advocate for the non-allowance of refugees into our country use fear as a tactic to scare others into believing that terrorists attacks will be a new norm if we were to let these displaced people into the United States. These people try to use events such as San Bernardino and the Paris terrorist attack to legitimize their argument that the people coming from this specific area of the world would be more likely to pose a threat to us. This reasoning is inherently flawed. Not only are the majority of terrorist attacks not committed by individuals of middle eastern descent (“By the Numbers: September”, 19), but the number of lives that have been lost in the Syrian civil war are more than 1700 times more than those lost in the two most recent attacks on the U.S. combined (“By the Numbers”, 1, 4, 12).

We should let at least five times as many refugees into our country as we are now. This still wouldn’t even come close to the number being taken in by Germany (“By the Numbers”, 6). We have seen no serious repercussions of such actions by other countries, so we shouldn’t be deterred using that reasoning. I strongly believe that the possible negative impacts of us accepting refugees into our country don’t outweigh the moral obligation we have as humans to support these people.

Sincerely,

Katie H.

Billings, Montana

Works Cited Page
“By the Numbers: Refugee Crisis.” Issues & Controversies. Infobase Learning, 2 Feb.
2016.Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=15053>.

“By the Numbers: September 11 Anniversary: Is the U.S. Safer?” Issues & Controversies.
Infobase Learning, 6 Sept. 2011. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.<http://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=5982>.