Now, More Than Ever, Pennsylvania Should Welcome Syrian Refugees

25-year-old Zachariah Kwirah (right), a factory worker from Syria, said he was almost separated from his family of three babies, two sisters and mother-in-law at a Serbian processing camp. (Michael McHugh/PA Wire)

One by one, United States governors promised to close their states’ borders to Syrian refugees yesterday.

Recycling the usual lines about immigrants and fueled by the tragedy in Paris, a total of 25 Republican governors and one Democrat – oh hi there, Maggie Hassan – were presumably reacting to news that one of the attackers used a Syrian passport to enter Europe. (They also, presumably, stopped reading by the time it was reported that the passport was fake.) Senators piled on, and GOP presidential candidates were only too happy to chime in.

I’m sure Donald Trump had something to say, but as I’m writing this, the sun is just barely up. There’s a bird chirping in my backyard and a bagel on the horizon. Any minute the heat is going to kick on and my feet will feel like toasty little s’mores. At this point, for all I know Tuesday will be full of hope and promise and corgi stampedes. I will Google Trump’s comments for you, but I will not read them. Not yet.

Instead, let’s kick it over to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. Tom, what say you, keeping in mind that the day has not gone to shit just yet?

“Governor Wolf wants Pennsylvania to continue to build on its rich history of accepting immigrants and refugees from around the world but he is also committed to protecting Pennsylvanians and will work with the Federal Government to ensure it is taking every precaution necessary in screening those families coming into the country,” his office said in a statement.

Now, it’s debatable what, if anything, Wolf and his follow governors can actually do here. President Obama has pledged to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees, and whether any one state can wholesale decline to participate is doubtful. Governors can attempt to cut funding and make the Welcome mat as slippery as possible, yes. But in all likelihood, Chris Christie doesn’t have the power to deny entry to Syrian orphans, just as he didn’t have the power to finish off that little bastard Harry Potter.

Regardless, our governor’s comments sound smart and reasonable. What else you got, Tom?

“We must not lose sight of the fact that families leaving Syria are trying to escape the same violence and unimaginable terror that took place in Paris and Beirut.”

One more time? I have trust issues.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that families leaving Syria are trying to escape the same violence and unimaginable terror that took place in Paris and Beirut.”

I could hug you right now, Tom.

As someone who was lucky enough to be born on US soil, I’ll admit that I have a difficult time imagining why one would pack up her family, leave her life behind and cross dangerous borders into strange and often unwelcoming lands. And that’s my fault. Because there has been plenty of mainstream, world-class, can’t-miss-it reporting about the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis. There may not have been a handy Facebook profile filter, but the tragedies were right there, out in the open. A toddler – a goddamn toddler – washed up on the shores of Turkey.

I’m not sure why I no more than skimmed those articles last month, why the deaths, displacement and terror of hundreds of thousands of fellow human beings didn’t hold my interest for more than a few minutes at a time. My guess is that it’s a mix of garden-variety apathy and laziness mixed with some more worrisome detachment to “otherness.” Whatever it is, it’s not pretty, but like the rest of the world, I’m paying attention now.

When we look at the difficult footage of the Paris attacks, our hearts should ache for Paris, of course. I cannot imagine seeing Philadelphia under siege, and I hope that I never fully understand the fear and despair Parisians must be experiencing today. But it would be a mistake to not also grieve for the Syrian refugees. Why are they risking their families’ lives, pouring across borders with little more than hope that someone will take them in? Because living in fear of suicide bombers is, we can probably all agree, an unacceptable way to live.

If there was ever a time to open our doors to Syrian refugees, the time is now, and I’m proud to live in a state that recognizes this, to have a governor whose compassion doesn’t need to see a passport.

To those other governors, I can only say “Happy Thanksgiving.”  And I have to wonder, when you’re gathered safely around your tables next week, which story are you going to tell? The one where Americans were kind enough to share their harvest with a bunch of undocumented immigrants escaping persecution? Or the one where we stole land, threw up artificial borders and refused to pass the potatoes?

Either way, it’s not a good look, guys.

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