One day, an 11-year-old wakes up to find that he has to transfer to another school. He doesn't move because he's in trouble or because his grades are bad. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayNo, this student is moving because of who he is and who his family is. This isn't the last time he'll move either. First, he will be in a school where the only other students are also like him. Then he will go to another country, because his father tells the family that they have to leave. Like so many others, this student's father saw the writing on the wall. Sometimes it's literal. An ugly hateful message, written in an ugly scrawl. Most of the time, however, it is conveyed in hushed tones and secret messages. Be that as it may, the message has been received: her family is no longer welcome. This story isn't from last year or even a couple of years ago. This story happened almost eighty years ago. It is the story of Ralph Bear, one of the few Holocaust refugees admitted to the United States. Baer's story, though, is sadly unique. The West was reluctant before, during and after World War II to welcome Jews who had been hunted down and killed. Indeed, it was in some respects the reluctance of the West that allowed Hitler to accelerate the implementation of his so-called “final solution”. This is not just shameful. It's a crime against decency. It is a crime against humanity. It is a repudiation of the idea that defined the twentieth century: that the world could and should be better for everyone than it was in the past. That the common good can sometimes triumph over nationalism and hatred. Countless Jews came to the West in their time of greatest need, and the West rejected them. The lesson we learned from the Holocaust was clear: never forget, never again. But our country has forgotten, and the unthinkable could happen again. According to NPR, thirty-two state governors, as well as a majority of members of Congress, have called for the pushback of Syrian refugees fleeing the brutality of ISIS and the Assad regime. Keeping our promise to never allow such an atrocity again means accepting refugees. The Syrian refugee crisis is the largest refugee and displaced person crisis of our time, resulting from a geopolitical feud involving Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, the Islamic State, and the Syrian people. and contrary to popular belief, opening our societies to Muslim refugees is one of the easiest ways to erode the ideological power of Islamic State terrorists. For the past four and a half years there has been a horrific civil war in Syria, which began with the hope of the Arab Spring protests of 2011. Several dictatorships were overthrown during this period and Syria was not exempt from the protests. In Syria, long-reigning dictator Bashar al-Assad refused to relinquish power and instead fought the rebellion with astonishing violence, including the torture of children and the gassing of his own people. with chemical weapons. Responding to a peaceful protest in 2011, Assad fired the first shots, signaling the start of a long civil war. According to Human Rights Watch, in 2016, approximately 470,000 Syrians were killed, 6.1 million were internally displaced, and 4.8 million sought refuge abroad. The biggest problem is that the entire international community is to blame. Sure, much of the blame lies with the Assad regime, but so do Iran, Russia, and China, all of which are providing financial support to that regime and doing little about the resulting refugee crisis. The Islamic State is also involved in the civil war.