The Immigration Conundrum

FranticFrummie

Tue, Jan 31 2017, 1:17 pm

sushilover wrote:

Sorry I realized that I, too posted statistics LOL

My apologies.

I'd love to hear what take your daughter ends up having on the whole issue. She sounds like an interesting and intellectual person! (Even if she comes to a different conclusion than I did, LOL) Are her friends interested in these issues as well?

DD is extremely smart, she's very empathetic, and cares deeply about social issues.

DD has a couple of online friends who are Muslim. Very integrated, not particularly religious, but proud of their culture and identity. She also has a friend who is a rebellious Mormon, and several gay friends. I support her in getting to know all kinds of people.

She hasn't reached any conclusions about immigration yet. The one thing I think that everyone can agree on, is like I said in the first post - it's complicated. She wants to save the whole world, and just doesn't know how to do it.

Living in Israel, we talk all the time about how there are good and bad Jews, Muslims, Druze, Bedouin, and Xians. We talk about judging people by their actions, treating everyone with respect, and balancing being open and friendly with being reasonable and cautious.

I tell her about the Muslims who shot out a car's windows, and about the Palestinian who stayed with the family and called for the police and ambulance. She tends to think in very black and white terms, and a huge part of becoming an adult, is realizing just how many gray areas there are in the world. It drives her crazy when she can't sort things into neat little piles! (Me too.) Wink

wondergirl

Tue, Jan 31 2017, 1:49 pm

FranticFrummie wrote:

She's more of a Milo, Blaire White, Andrew Klavan kind of girl. Wink

She also likes That Black Guy, and Patty Patriot. Hotep is a little over her head right now, but she really enjoys The ZoLoft, too. If you haven't heard of some of these, they're worth checking out.

We talk all the time about how much blessing we have from Hashem, how grateful we are, and about the importance of tzedakah. There's a reason why the rules of tzedakah state that you give to your neighbor first, then your community, and THEN worry about the rest of the world. Do you think the Torah is protectionist and selfish? (CVS)

If you are one of the lucky ones, and you know that the next town over is a Jewish family who is struggling to feed their kids and keep the heat on in winter, do you feel OK with giving your money to a Muslim who lives across the globe?

If you personally are having a hard time financially, and your shul says that there is no chessed money available to help you out, how does it make you feel to know that people want to support a flood of new immigrants?

Your daughter seems like a very smart and intellectual person. I'm impressed.

As for giving tzedakah, I will say that charity begins at home. Yes, its good to be able to give tzedakah, but how can you give someone money if you don't have any money yourself? How can you do hachnosis orchim if you dont have a place to live? How can you give someone food if you dont have any food?

On airplanes they tell you to put on your mask first before you help others because if you can't breath then you can't help anyone else breath. If you see someone drowning then what good is it to jump into the water to help them if you can't swim? You will both just end up dead so its better to get someone else to help the person instead so that you can both survive.

So yes, if you want to give tzedakah and help others then you have to help yourself first. You do not have to put your life in danger to help someone else. Its not selfish, its actually selfless because if you dont take care of yourself then you will get sick and will not be able to take care of anyone else.

The same is true with America. It is great that America wants to help everyone else but they need to first help themselves so that they can be in a good position to help others. If America doesnt have enough money to help their own citizens then how do they have the money to help everyone else?

America has thousands of homeless citizens living in the streets, what good is it if they bring refugees in when they cant help their own citizens? Where do they plan on putting these refugees and why can't citizens live in these places instead?

America has thousands of citizens who don't have jobs, if you bring in refugees and give them jobs then why cant you first make sure that all citizens have jobs first?

Its nice that America wants to help refugees but what good is it if we will end up being destroyed in the process? If extremist muslims openly state that they will send terrorists to hurt Americans, then we have an obligation to protect ourselves against it. Because at the end of the day, if America gets destroyed then we won't be able to help anyone, let alone our own citizens.

Charity begins at home and its time we start taking care of our own citizens and protect them from harm before we take care of anyone else.