 |
| Courtesy of WestportNow.Com |
The headline struck me.
Indeed, who gets to pick their country?
For most of us it is an accident of birth. I keep in touch with my old home town,
Westport, Ct. through WestportNow.com. A
Syrian refugee, Mohamed al Maassri, spoke to the Westport Sunrise Rotary Club about
his experience of settling his family in Norwalk, Ct, fleeing the carnage in
Syria. Although his tale is anecdotal, the typical rigorous background checking
already in place is not. Here is a
refugee who would be denied the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and
happiness in a nation that has welcomed so many fleeing their countries for political
or economic reasons – all because of the accident of his birth. What kind of a callous country are we becoming? This is the face of the "new nationalism"? It is an ugly one. Mohamed al Maassri’s experience of US
officials knowing “more about me than I did” is already the standard. Surely, vigorous vetting is a better solution
to protecting our nation than Trump's dictum of excluding ALL refugees from specific
countries.
Mohamed al Maassri
today put a face to the national debate over refugees, telling the Westport
Sunrise Rotary Club what it’s like to flee a war in Syria, leaving him
stateless, homeless, and destitute.
“Who picks their
country?” he said, explaining that it was happenstance that he got caught up in
the war in his homeland and ended up in Connecticut eight months ago with his
wife and two children.
Maassri’s tale was
not that of a typical refugee. He owned a construction material importing
exporting business in Dubai at the outset of the war in Syria. He then returned
home and saw how the “Assad (government) and Iranian and Hezbolah militias”
destroyed his town.
He lamented: “1,500
people were dead in the street, and I don’t know why.”
Because he was a
Syrian, he said he was then blocked by Dubai immigration officials from
returning to his company and was told his business had been closed. He said he
lost everything.
After months of
interrogation, Maassri arrived with his family in the United States. “They knew
more about me than I did,” he said of the U.S. officials who vetted him.
He and his family
finally settled in Norwalk, aided by the Westport Interfaith Resettlement
Committee, a group of six churches and synagogues. Members found them a place
to live, provided language education, and a got him a job at Whole Foods.
“My goal is to
improve myself, so I can do more here,” he said. While he likes his job, he
said the pay is not enough to sustain his family.
When asked what
he’d like to do, he responded, “I’d like to get back into import export, but I
have nothing to start it with.”
A singer, he said
we would like to find “a Muslim, a Jew and a Christian, and sing about peace.”
Helen Garten,
Sunrise Rotary president, said, “When you do, you’ll come back and sing for
us.”
