What 90 Year Old Bobby Kennedy Would Tell Us On Refugees

On November 20th, Robert F. Kennedy would have turned 90 years old. He was famously assassinated 47 years ago in June as a young man running for President of the United States. Rather than looking sadly at his death, I think America could use a little bit of the positivity of his life right now. We should remember what Kennedy, and our nation, stood for at that time.

Right now we have political leaders in this country that are calling for America to turn it's back on Syrian Refugees seeking shelter from a brutal civil war at home. They say the risk to our people is too great, despite the rigorous process refugees go through to get here, and it's nearly perfect historical record. They say we should be fearful of people who are fleeing fear- fear of ISIS, of a government that slaughters them, and yet other bad people who are fighting in a civil war that is void of many "good" guys. They say we should turn our back on them, and protect ourselves. The world is a bad place, a scary place, after all. The real solution is to bomb them in Syria, or go back in with ground troops, they say.

RFK's life had many contradictions, but the man that died in June of 1968 had become the moral voice of a generation. He had risen up to take on the Johnson Administration on Vietnam, becoming the voice of the millions who wanted the unjust war to end. He fought for the freedom and dignity of people around the world in need. Most importantly though, I look to the moral leader he had become on the dignity of people here, and Civil Rights. On the night of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a night in which peoples' better instincts went by the wayside in many cities across our nation, Kennedy spoke in Indianapolis and called on peoples' better angels to prevail, despite the fear and despair they were feeling. He asked people to look beyond the fear of the moment, and look to the world they wanted to live in.

In the wake of the scary, terrible events of Paris, many of our political leaders are calling on us to live in fear. Fear the refugees, and reject their entry to our nation. I don't believe RFK would be agreeing with them. For a man who remained so hopeful, even after the brutal killing of his brother in the service to our nation, I don't think he'd tell us to reject a founding principle of our nation in the name of fear. I doubt he'd say let's "pause" the working refugee system because it *might* not be good enough, despite evidence that it is. RFK would not have lived in the fear that many of our leaders do today. Not everyone can be RFK all of the time, I do understand that. It would be nice if our leaders at least aspired to though.