Indiana governor rejects two refugee families

Picture of Syrian refugees . . . waiting.
                                                                                              photo from Reuter's

Indiana's Republican governor Mike Pence, along with so many other governors ordered state agencies to halt refugee resettlement activities.

The Chicago Tribune reports that a Syrian family, consisting of two parents and their five year old son, pictured below, that had been scheduled to arrive in Indiana on Thursday, has instead been warmly accepted to make their home in Connecticut, whose governor Dannel Mallow personally greeted them on their arrival.  This young family has been thoroughly vetted and has been living in Jordan for three years, waiting for resettlement in the United States.

The re-settlement in Connecticut was arranged by Exodus Refugee Immigration, which has been notified by the Indiana officials not to send any more refugees to their state.

A second family had been placed by Catholic Charities in Indiana and scheduled to arrive in December.   They will now be settled in another welcoming state yet to be named.

Governor Pence also made headline news last spring when he signed Indiana's Religious Freedom bill that would have allegedly allowed discrimination against GLBT people, although Pence denied that was its intent.  However, the immediate backlash from national corporations and convention planners was such a dire threat to Indiana's economy that the legislature quickly revised the law.

That debacle ended Pence's consideration as a major 2016 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.    Although, when we now see what the choices are for the GOP nomination, this might not have been such a liability after all.

The demagoguery rampant among the Republican presidential candidates, led by Donald Trump, is as astonishing as it is disturbing.     Yesterday, he even seemed on three different occasions to respond to questions about a data base of Muslims in this country that would require all Muslims to register and carry an ID card with their religion on it.    Now on more reflection and consultation with his advisers, Trump may back away from that position.   As of last night, his campaign had declined to clarify his position.   If in fact he is saying he would have such a registry, that is a chilling echo of Nazi Germany's requiring Jews to wear a yellow Star of David in the years leading up to the Holocaust.

We need to have FDR sit down with one of his fireside chats that were so reassuring during World War II -- and say to us that famous line:

"All we have to fear is fear itself."  

Ralph