Americans resent being told that they have obligations beyond the borders. When some of those obligations attempt to cross the border. the inclination is to resist. Add that to the Congress pervasive synicism about presidential utterances and you have the sour sentiment that surfaced in the vote against the refugees. Rep. John B. Anderson of Illinois tried. in the House debate. to invoke the impact of the unforgettable film "of those hundredsyes. thousands--of people. who. in their desperate rush and bid for freedom. were literally clawing at the embassy walls in an effort to get through in time to be helicoptered to safety .... " "We do owe some moral responsibility. some humanitarian obligation to those people." the Rockford Republican said. "and I am willing to accept the pledged word of the President of the United States" that the funds would be used to aid the refugees. not to restart the American war in Vietnam. But Andersons words were as futile as the California schoolteachers. And so America emerges as the kind of country that will send a halfmillion men to a small nation. finance seven years of bombing and burning and battle. shattering the economy and the social order. and then balk at accepting in return 150.000 peaceful refugees into a society of 210 million. Sometime. somehow. we have to start balancing the moral accounts. And for a start. we might try the no refugeesno bombing rule.
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refugeesno refugees