Heartsick

 "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." - St. Francis of Assisi

 

The older I get, the less and less I seem to understand the world.  The events of last night in Paris are so far outside my sphere of understanding that I'm not even trying.  My visceral reaction to the news was to feel sick.  Sick to my stomach.  Sick to my core.

Before the Paris attacks, I tried hard to bury my horror over the attacks in Beirut. Our part of the world paid little attention to those terrorist attacks.  But another attack on Paris would get our attention. The loss of European lives would hit close to home.  I tried hard through a long wakeful night after the news came from Paris, to convince myself that Canadians wouldn't go where I feared they would go but it was only a few hours into the day when I saw my worst fears realized.  

Yesterday, the annual Fall Fair was held at my mom's nursing home.  As we have done for the last eleven years, my sisters and I ran the jewellery department at the fair. Other than at the fair, I seldom see the group of women who volunteer at the nursing home.  My mom doesn't attend the activities anymore.  They are a lovely group of women, most twenty years my senior.  One of the loveliest women, Anna, took a few moments out of our very hectic preparation time to chat with me and get caught up on the happenings of the last year.  In addition to her volunteer work at the nursing home, Anna has been working at her church on their project to sponsor six families of Syrian refugees.  They should arrive in Canada before the end of this year.  After the attacks in Paris on Friday night, Anna is having second thoughts. She's thinking that maybe we shouldn't let them in.  What if they are terrorists?  I felt the knot in my stomach growing.

Earlier this year I reconnected with an old friend.  When I posted on my Facebook page a few weeks ago that I have created a new line of jewellery that I am selling for Syrian refugee relief, she was one of the first people to message me with an order.  Today, she posted a petition on her Facebook page, imploring the Canadian government to ban the entry of Syrian refugees.  It felt like a gut punch.  

In less than six weeks, it will be Christmas.  We live in a huge and prosperous country.  Are we really prepared to tell these refugees that there is no room at the inn?  Are we prepared to let terrorists define who we are?  We are Canadians.  We have more than we need.  Let's build a longer table not a higher fence.