Refuge or Refuse? Which Will it Be? The U.S. Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis

News of brutal terrorist acts demands an inner reckoning within each and every one of us.  Will you double down on fear or double down on compassion?  Is your heart opening up or closing down? 
   

I remember this feeling well from 9/11, the numbing effect of initial shock.  As we emerge from it this time, what action will we take?   Will we respond from a sense of fear or compassion?  How will our governments respond?  After the 9/11 attacks, a universal feeling of goodwill and compassion swept across the world.  I remember being completely baffled how quickly our government squandered that good will by rushing into war with Iraq.  I feel now as I did then that we are too quick to assuage our fear and pain by inflicting fear and pain on others, even when “others” turn out not even to be the ones who are directly responsible.  Iraq and 9/11, we were told, were linked.  We know now that was not the case.   

As I watch the evolving coverage of the Paris attacks, once again it seems we are being nudged into making what I believe is another false association between two concurrent issues  – the Syrian refugee crisis and the Paris attacks.  It is as if by combining two crises, we can tie a neat little bow around them and get rid of the fear and uncertainty generated by both at the same time.  (Convenient idea, but again, not the truth.)  I investigated more about the refugees, who they are, why they are fleeing Syria, and find it is laughingly implausible that they would pose a threat to our homeland. Half of them are children, for one thing.  (See links to several supporting articles at the end of this blog.)  The numbers and the facts simply do not support the assertion that the refugees are laced with terrorists.  Is it even remotely likely that traumatized refugees who have lost everything and who have endured unspeakable hardship for weeks or months on end would have the will or even the energy for anything beyond scrounging for the basics of life such as food and shelter? I find it highly suspicious that a supposed Syrian passport found at one of the Paris attack sites indicates some kind of link.  It is akin to the elusive “weapons of mass destruction” – used falsely as justification for extreme self-protectionism. 

The problem is, it seems we are so eager to get rid of our psychological pain that we are apt to accept the first simplistic explanation and “solution” in order to feel some sense of relief.  I shudder to think of how many lives – including those of our service men and women and their families – were negatively and permanently impacted by the decision to go into Iraq. (Not to mention the destruction of neighborhoods and the taking of innocent Iraqi lives.)  Going into Iraq seems to me a classic example of addictive behavior − dealing with psychological pain by distracting ourselves.  In other words, “Do something, anything.  I don’t care what! Just don’t go deeply into the pain.” Apparently “doing something” in revenge was psychologically more appealing than taking our time to collect facts and deal with our deep grief.   Tired of mourning?  Wage war.  Depressed?  Have another drink. Feeling hopeless?  Go shopping.  

Since 9/11, we’ve heard the same familiar drumbeat of ramping up the violence in response to a variety of issues including school shootings.  The solution to violence, we’re told, is more violence. The solution to mass murders is more guns; bombs require more bombs.  When will we wake up and realize that we have been drawn into a game which has no other possible outcome than the escalation of violence and suffering? Do we really want to live in a hyper-militarized police state?  

When fear overtakes us it has a dumbing-down effect on our minds and a stress-inducing effect on our bodies, and this makes us vulnerable to simplistic and extreme solutions.   We default to the reptilian brain, discarding subtleties, interconnections and long-term implications, becoming distrusting, impatient and paranoid.  Fear makes us act out impulsively and isolates us from one another emotionally.  Fear ignites a fight or flight response.  Brain science has confirmed that fight or flight is a characteristically masculine response to crisis.  The feminine response, on the other hand, is to tend and befriend.  In a perfect world, our response as a nation would neither be skewed to the masculine nor the feminine, but would combine attributes of both approaches.  And I think this is why, as a woman, I sorely feel the absence of balance in the responses that are being chosen by many of our government officials thus far.   Over 50% of the governors of our United States have chosen a flight response  – declaring that they will refuse to admit Syrian refugees into their states.  Several presidential candidates are advocating fight – more bombs, more attacks on supposed ISIS strongholds. Fight or flight, they have walled off their hearts from the greatest and most powerful and transformative of human qualities – compassion, charity, love, community and kindness. The best of our human strengths, the very attributes which allow us to connect and overcome any crisis together, are not welcome when we choose fight or flight.  We become, in my estimation, less than human; less than whole.

When we make the more courageous choice to dare to open our hearts in time of crisis, we reclaim the wholeness of who we are.  Just because we are in our full hearts does not mean we discard using our brains to discern, defend and protect. The idealism and supposed naiveté of the heart is often used as an argument against responding with compassion and charity in difficult and dangerous times.  But I would argue that the exact opposite is true.  We cannot ever fight fire with fire without ingesting fire.  We cannot respond like our enemy and not become more like our enemy.  Compassion and charity are what define our virtue. We are made more secure when we extend to others the kindness we ourselves would want to receive.  It plays into the narrative of terrorists if Americans reject Syrian refugees.  It adds to the feeling of alienation, shame, and rejection that fuel resentment and hatred.   

To get off the perpetual treadmill of war, I believe we must do something radically different and more bold than ever before.  We must be more loving, more generous, more daringly open, more trusting.  We choose compassion not for the sake of defying evil or proving the enemy wrong, but because when we look deep within ourselves, we realize that the deepest part of who we are is merciful, compassionate and loving. Compassion heals and unites.  It is the stark beauty of an open heart against the dark backdrop of hatred and fear which can and will lead us from the darkness and into the light.

There are those that would say what I describe would make us appear vulnerable and weak.  But would it really?  Isn’t weakness succumbing to fear rather than facing it and being our truest selves anyway?  Haven’t we already lost our freedom when our responses are informed by projections of worse case scenarios and exaggerated risks?  There are no guarantees in life. Life is not inherently safe.   We will all experience some kind of suffering in our lifetimes.  But it is love and compassion that make life worth living, that make suffering bearable, that provide nourishment and replenishment to rise above the difficult times. If we do not fight to cultivate this sustenance, we risk becoming weakened shells of ourselves. This leaves me nothing but to conclude that fear and hatred are the true “foreigners” we should be shutting out of our country and hearts.    

So, instead of walls of red tape for refugees - homes, food, warm blankets, kindness, community. Instead of spewing hatred, doubt, division and retribution – let’s deeply listen to one another to explore our common humanity.  I have faith in our common humanity; trust in the unity that underlies our differences.  It is up to each of us to claim the kind of world we want to live in.  Bombings and shootings are the end product of lifetimes of man-made alienation, shame, resentment and fear, lifetimes of fight or flight responses that find no end.  We may not be able to undo it for those who find themselves so bereft of heart that they become terrorists.   But I do know that the more of us who choose love and compassion, the quicker we spread the kind of world any human being would be happy to live in.  Love evokes a very different response – gratitude, connection, trust, reciprocity, paying it forward. This is the kind of country and world I would be proud to live in.  I am pretty certain that Lady Liberty would feel the same.

Laurie McCammon, MSAEd is the author of the upcoming book published by Conari Press, Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word

Laurie's Website:  https://www.lauriemccammon.com

Laurie's FB:  https://www.facebook.com/EnoughLiberateRemake

Laurie's Twitter: https://twitter.com/EnoughMessage

Links to information about the Syrian Refugee Crisis and Paris Attacks: 

What you need to know: Crisis in Syria, refugees, and the impact on children

An overview of the Syria refugee crisis, its impact on children, and how you can help.

November 3, 2015 | By World Vision staff

http://www.worldvision.org/news-stories-videos/syria-war-refugee-crisis

PolitiFact Sheet: 5 questions about Syrian refugees by Lauren Carroll, Linda Qiu on Thursday, November 19th, 2015 at 2:14 p.m.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/nov/19/politifact-sheet-5-questions-about-syrian-refugees/

Huffington Post These Groups Have An Idea To Help Syrian Refugees: Let People Sponsor Them It's Working in Canada.  Elise Foley  10/27/15

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugee-resettlement_562fc4a1e4b0c66bae59c4c3

These Reactions To The Paris Attacks Will Inspire You -  People Around The World Are Restoring Our Faith in Humanity. Alexandra Ma Editorial Fellow, The Huffington Post Posted: 11/16/2015 01:40 PM EST | Edited: 11/16/2015 02:46 PM EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paris-attacks-inspiring-reactions_5649fcbae4b060377349e486

New York Times Opinion Pages The Farce Awakens Paul Krugman Paul Krugman NOV. 20,2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/20/opinion/republican-refugee-panic-fits-a-pattern.html?rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=Blogs&_r=0

Who Will Lead the Next Revolution? 5 Reasons I Believe It Will Be the Introverts

Me recharging in Boynton Canyon, Sedona

I’m a bit over half way through Susan Cain’s best-selling book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Won't Stop Talking.  Besides being an introvert myself, my primary interest in reading it was to learn more about the connection between introverts and the acceleration of consciousness. I had already suspected a strong connection, one which essentially reverses the cultural bias from the bold to the humble and from an ethic of “the survival of the fittest” to one of “Together we rise!”

 

Here is what I've learned so far:

1.       Introverts are less reward-motivated than extroverts, focused more on inner motivations and satisfactions.  Therefore, we can expect that an extroverted-leaning culture would be a more consumerist culture, seeking external rewards and using up more of Earth’s resources as they seek those external rewards.  (And this is what we see in the USA.) This suggests that it is likely that introverts hold the key to how to cultivate an inner sense of satisfaction or “enoughness,” leading to buying and using less of Earth’s resources.  Practices such as mindfulness and Thai Chi  are examples of how to cultivate a sense of satiety and peace with oneself and the world.

2.       Introverts often feel overstimulated by our fast-paced, information-rich, plugged in society and need more solitude and quiet in order to integrate and recharge themselves.  This may seem like a liability, but actually it is a strength in disguise.  Introverts tend to process external stimuli in more detail than extroverts.  This level of detail adds to the "overload" they experience as compared to extroverts. Processing so much data may take longer but produces different and often deeper insights. But in a time when most of our crises are not sudden or simple (climate disruption for example) we need more introverts willing to delve deep into the complexities and details. 

3.       Introverts inherently make more connections between data. Whenever a problem is complex, requires deep listening, concentrated focus, blending of data, collective action and attention to subtle clues, (and most of our biggest problems today are)  it is shown that introverts are better qualified for the job. Extroverts hold the advantage when fast decision-making and bold action are required.  Brain science confirms that extroverts rely more heavily on activity of the amygdala (the reptilian brain) from which quick and bold decisions are made (fight or flight) than do introverts.  Introverts register more brain activity in the neocortex where associations between data are noted and considered.    

4.       In the Enough book I describe the limitless abundance humanity is discovering as we explore the subtle within us and all around us. Whether it is technology, new sciences or the practice of mindfulness, the innovative frontier is focused on the territory well beyond what can be sensed with our five senses, areas such as vibration, the zero point field and the collective consciousness.  In this, introverts have the advantage because they are naturally wired to notice and prefer to dwell in the subtle. As a result, finding the hidden abundance in the subtle will presumably come rather naturally for them.  

5.       Introversion and extroversion are partially culturally learned. Cultural norms, economic rewards and social cues are keyed to what a culture values most.    In Asia, introversion and humility is highly valued and therefore rewarded, while in Europe and the United States, the opposite is true.  Susan Cain describes how the culture of the extrovert on Wall Street created a very dangerous snowball effect, selecting for extroverts while eliminating more cautious introverts again and again, gradually increasing bold and risky action until the crash of 2008.  Warren Buffet, a consummate introvert, saw this coming and profited from the 2008 crash.  

It seems to me that the bold-bias Susan has observed among the cultural, educational and economic elite enclaves of the west is representative of what I call The “Never Enough” Story, a story which has been on the rise for thousands of years and may have reached its height.  Bold and loud, busy, excess-oriented and reward-seeking could certainly describe this trajectory. And so could stressful, cutthroat, unequal, greedy, exploitive, disconnected, lonely, narcissistic, extractive and short-sighted. Fortunately, a rebalancing between introvert and extrovert, inner and outer, me and we is happening under names such as the sharing economy, community currency, new economics, permaculture, divine feminine spirituality, resilience hubs, transition towns, Occupy and the commons movement. Many of these are led by people we would traditionally consider quiet. But their willingness to be seen and heard and to gather in increasing numbers to push for change is a sign of a huge sea change.   

I see this as a planetary pivot from the extremes of excess and bold back towards the center - the middle way of moderation and discernment.  All of this is to say if you are an introvert, this is a time to be proud of it and to step forward out of your comfort zone to share your gifts more boldly.  Quiet is powerful.   And if you are an extrovert, perhaps this is a time to slow down, listen more, attune to your inner world and to learn what it is you have not been seeing or feeling with as much discernment and clarity as you would like.

Several of the people I love and admire most in this world are extroverts, and I believe part of why they are so attractive to me is that they have qualities I'd like to learn to develop more within myself. Perhaps at first, I was satisfied to have them "complete me" but as time has gone on, I've realized a more empowered view is that they are teachers for how I might empower myself to be more balanced and whole unto myself. As an introvert, this means to trust myself more, to take more risks and to speak out when I have strong convictions or possibly useful ideas no one else has spoken yet.

I believe we are heading to a time of more wholeness, interconnection and fuller consciousness. What this requires of all of us, whether introvert, extrovert or somewhere in between, is a willingness to step out of our patterns and comfort zones to incorporate some of the opposite within us. When we become more whole, we are realizing untapped enoughness within and all around us. We are rebalancing ourselves and the world. And this can and should be enough to change the world. 

How about you?  

Are you an introvert?  Do you feel an inner calling at this time to step forward in a bolder way?       

Are you an extrovert?  Are you experiencing a growing need for solitude and rest? 

Tell me your Enough Story!   www.LaurieMcCammon.com                 

               

Laurie is the author of the upcoming book (April, 2016 - Conari Press) Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word