My grandmother lived in Aleppo, Syria a hundred years ago as a 12 year old orphaned Christian, ethnic Armenian refugee from the Ottoman Empire. If she tried to come to the U.S. today the same way, she may have been turned away in error as a risk to the safety of the U.S. While Syria is on the list, she was never a Syrian citizen. The country of Armenia did not exist when she lived in the Ottoman Empire. She could have been mistaken as Syrian. She had no birth certificate or passport. She witnessed her mother’s murder at the hands of Ottomans. To be viewed by the U.S. as a threat was never considered as a rational perspective until recent times. There are threats to the U.S., but the wholesale misclassification of millions of people today who have already experienced atrocities before being examined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is wrong. It hurts the U.S. too.
Banning Syrian citizen refugees is wrong too. These are people who appreciate the small things in life more than those who don't know suffering. They are inspired by fortune after misfortune to contribute for all our benefits. To shun them after being unspeakably victimized already is a reason for them to become angry as direct result of American leadership paranoia. Rather than the American Dream, this is an American Nightmare. Stand up and force our leaders to detect those who are true dangers in a more effective way, for everyone's well-being.