I am very disappointed. I wrote, what I thought was a stirring and insightful blog post, and here we are two weeks later, and the world is still gripped by a refugee crisis. It’s almost like the most powerful minds in the world don’t hang on my every word. In any case, now that I have a little more time, I was hoping to include a little more actual data with my invective.

But first, an example. One hundred fifty years ago a country crushed by oppression and wracked by famine, lost a million people to hunger and sent a further million out into the world to make their way as best as they could in the face of the rest of the world’s hostility and indifference. That country was Ireland, and my three-greats-grandfather came here to the United states, put on a blue uniform and fought for the union in the civil war. He’s buried today in a soldier’s cemetery in Milwaukee Wisconsin. And it is because of his service and the service of thousands more immigrants like him that there is a United states of America today. Even in the the 1840s 50s and 60s in a country far more dependent on immigration than the America of today, the Irish were not welcomed with open arms. As a group they were called ignorant drunken violent and worse, Catholic. But where there was a railroad to be built or a mine to be dug, or a fight to be fought, the Irish were right there in the thick of it.

And that’s why we need immigrants today. To help us face the challenges we don’t even see coming. To help us actually be the country we have claimed to be all along, a shelter for the oppressed and an example of freedom to inspire the world.

So, I’m not a reporter, and I am probably no better at searching google than any of you. But here’s a few informative links that show the scale and context of the problem right now:

Some quality reporting from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/04/syrian-refugee-crisis-why-has-it-become-so-bad

CNN if you must (warning, video may auto-play): http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/07/europe/europe-migrant-crisis/

Here’s a person that wants to defeat both Assad and ISIS as a military “solution” that would be similar in magnitude to the previous two gulf wars I included this because another war on the scale of the second Gulf War would cost another $6 Trillion. Which makes the $8 billion price tag the UN puts on dealing with the refugee crisis a bargain by anyone’s accounting.

And given that Carly Fiorina has been wrong on every issue in her professional career, the fact that she wants us to highly restrict the number of Syrian refugees we accept is a convincing argument for throwing the gates open: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/06/fiorina-warns-us-be-very-careful-about-keeping-out-terrorist-while-allow-in/

And here’s the ever more useless New York Times focusing on the difficulties of accepting more refugees instead of making the case for accepting more refugees: ttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/05/us/many-obstacles-are-seen-to-us-taking-in-large-number-of-syrian-refugees.html?_r=0

And lastly, here’s what Mercycorps has to say, and how you can help.

Even if it’s just five or ten dollars, that buys more grain or rice than you’d think when you’re buying in bulk. Think of it as picking up lunch for a friend you haven’t met yet.