I don’t like the word “meme.” It’s kind of annoying, really. You take a picture, use Photoshop to put a
clever passive-aggressive phrase over the top of picture, and then throw it up
on your Facebook wall and sit back to see how many people think you are super
clever by sharing it and reposting it a billion times. I have seen a lot of memes flying around
social media lately, and I am finally to the point where I can no longer just
scroll past them and shake my head. Most
of them involve mass generalizations about large groups of people. For instance, a number of my friends on
social media seem to be claiming that anyone who opposes unfettered acceptance
of ‘refugees’ into the United States must be illiterate anti-Muslim bigots who
don’t know what it means to be Christian.
These same people post meme after meme accusing anyone who has the nerve
to state that radical Islam (such as
the brand espoused by Al Qaeda and ISIS) is a problem is somehow indicting the
entire Islamic faith. One such meme is
a composite picture of a group of KKK members complete with white robes and
hoods on the top half, and a group of radical Muslim terrorists on the bottom
half with words to the effect of “The KKK does not represent Christianity any
more than ISIS represents Islam.” Well,
no shit. I have not heard any reasonable
person state that all Islam is the problem.
I think we all can agree that at this point in history, radical Islam is definitely a
problem. Just ask the families of the hundreds
of people who lost their lives in the last two weeks in terrorist attacks in
Beirut and Paris and the skies over Egypt.
Shaming people who choose to state the obvious and mischaracterizing their
statements isn’t doing anyone any favors.
One of the most clever memes I have seen posted about a
bazillion times on my Facebook feed alone has to do with refugees. “Christians
in the South put on a nativity play every year which about a Middle Eastern
couple desperate for shelter.” Oh yeah…that’s
a good one. IN YOUR FACE, CHRISTIANS!!! This particular gem is an apparent response
to the large group of governors who have stated that they do not wish to have
unvetted Syrian refugees deposited in their cities, and are trying to make a
point to our President by being vocal about their concerns. The FBI director James Comey, whom President
Obama appointed, has stated that there is no system in place right now to
adequately screen the Syrians who wish to come to our country to determine
whether they are in fact refugees. “We
can only query against that which we have collected. And so if someone has
never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity
or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until
the cows come home, but there will be nothing show up because we have no record
of them,” Comey explained. Because of
these comments, some members of Congress (who have an R by their name, thus
rendering them incompetent boobs in the eyes of the meme-crafters), have suggested
that we pause admitting them long enough to put a process in place that will
help ensure that refugees can get in, and terrorists cannot. Of course, since these members of
congress and governors have the audacity to question whether the refugees which
are being brought to the United States are actually refugees or perhaps a
mixture of mostly refugees and also a few bad guys, they are being raked over
the coals for their insensitivity by a lot of people who have no idea
what the word refugee means.
Article 1(A)(2) of the 1951 Geneva Convention defines a
refugee as an individual who is outside his or her country of
nationality or habitual residence who is unable or unwilling
to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution based
on his or her race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or
membership in a particular social group. Applying this definition,
internally displaced persons (IDPs) – including individuals fleeing natural
disasters and generalized violence, stateless individuals not outside their country
of habitual residence or not facing persecution, and individuals who have
crossed an international border fleeing generalized violence are not considered
refugees under either the 1951 Convention or the 1967 Optional Protocol.
President Obama recently spoke in Turkey about the refugee
issue. He focused in on the statements of
the Pillsbury Dough Boy, aka Ted Cruz, who stated that he believed that we should
focus on accepting Christian refugees from Syria. President Obama derided what he called a “religious
test” and then mocked anyone in the United States who believes that we should
proceed carefully as being “afraid of widows and children.” Well, that was certainly productive, Mr.
President. You keep on using the word “refugee.” In the famous words of Indigo Montoya, “I do
not think it means what you think it means.”
The problem is that a person who is fleeing generalized violence (such
as the kind of indiscriminate violence that ISIS perpetrates against whomever
happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) is not a refugee under that
convention. So, whether you like Mr.
Cruz or not, what he said was an accurate statement of the law. Paul Ryan, the new Speaker of the House,
reiterated the words of President Obama stating “there will not be a religious
test.” Read the Geneva Convention, Mr.
Ryan. I would rather call it a “persecution
test” but nobody has asked me. Christians,
thousands of them, have been rounded up and slaughtered by ISIS. If you are a Christian in Syria, you are
being persecuted by ISIS. If you are a
Shiite Muslim in Iraq, you are persecuted by ISIS. There are many more ethnic and religious
groups that have fallen under the Sauron-like eye of ISIS. This we know.
What we don’t know is which of the people who are leaving Syria are
simply fleeing the generalized violence there (not refugees), fleeing religious or political
persecution (refugees), or if there are some of them that have other nefarious purposes (terrorist assholes). The idea that we would accept people fleeing
from any country where they are persecuted for their religious or political beliefs
is unquestioned. But how do we determine
whether they are being persecuted for their religious or political beliefs? Hmmm.
Let me think. I suppose WE WOULD
HAVE TO ASK THEM. Uh oh. Bring on the clever memes.
Mocking people who have genuine concern for the safety and
well-being of our citizens is not accomplishing anything. I think the United States should actively
work on a system which will allow refugees to come to our country. I believe that we can all agree that our
safety should be a consideration in this process. I don’t believe that belittling people for
their concerns is doing any good whatsoever, and in fact divides us even more. There is a common middle ground here. But I guess there isn’t a meme for
that.
