Not how we should be
Published November 17, 2015
by Doug Clark, Off the Record, published in Greensboro News-Record, November 16, 2015.
The face you see is that of Daniel Patrick Boyd, who headed a North Carolina-based jihadist group until the FBI put an end to his activities.
He's pulling time in a federal prison in Florida.
"Boyd pleaded guilty on February 9, 2011, to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339A; and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons abroad, Title 18, United States Code, Section 956(a). He recruited his own sons and others into conspiracies to murder persons abroad and provide material support to terrorism," the FBI said in a 2012 news release.
Boyd didn't enter the United States as a refugee from Syria or Iraq or anywhere else in the Muslim world. He was a natural born citizen of the United States.
My point is that terrorists can pop up where we least expect them.
Maybe Gov. Pat McCrory expects terrorists to infiltrate the refugee families from Syria who could be resettled in North Carolina and for that reason says no such refugees should be brought here.
Maybe the governor is just responding to and reinforcing public fears, or maybe he's thinking ahead to next year's election.
Whatever the case, he's not really showing the best side of North Carolina.
Our state, and Greensboro and High Point particularly, practically lead the country in hospitality to newcomers. So many people and organizations in this state have welcomed desperate people trying to start a new life in a land of opportunity and freedom. They help them find a place to live, work and go to school. They make the transition smoother.
It's the American story.
Does it matter if their home countries are unfriendly to the U.S.? Not really, not when refugees fleeing a brutal life at home find a warm welcome here.
Naturally, all refugees must be screened to make sure they aren't criminals or, worse, terrorists. We have to trust the appropriate federal agencies to do that job well, just as we have to trust the FBI and other security agencies to stop the terrorists who have been raised in our own cities and towns.
But just to say no, we won't take anyone, not a single child or old woman, from Syria or any other country just isn't the way we should be. It won't make us safer, or better.
November 17, 2015 at 9:15 am
bruce stanley says:
