One day, an eleven-year-old boy wakes up to find that he has to move 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 Should Not 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 moves either. First of all, it will be in a school where the only other students are also like him. Then it will be in another country, because his father tells his 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 message of hatred, written in an ugly scribble. Most of the time, however, this is done in hushed tones and in secret messages. However the message was received, it was received: her family is no longer welcome. This story is not from last year or even a few years ago. This story happened almost eighty years ago. This is the story of Ralph Bear, one of the only Holocaust refugees admitted to the United States. Baer's story, however, is unfortunately unique. The West was reluctant before, during and after World War II to welcome the hunted and killed Jews. In fact, it was in some ways Western reluctance that allowed Hitler to accelerate the implementation of his so-called “Final Solution.” It's not just shameful. It's a crime against decency. It is a crime against humanity. It is a rejection of the idea that defined the 20th century: that the world could and should be better for everyone than it has been in the past. That the common good could sometimes triumph over nationalism and hatred. Countless Jews came to the West when they needed them most, and the West turned them away. 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, along with a majority of members of Congress, have called for the rejection of Syrian refugees fleeing the brutality of ISIS and the Assad regime. Keeping our promise to never again allow such an atrocity means accepting refugees. The Syrian refugee crisis is the largest refugee and displacement crisis of our time, stemming from a geopolitical feud involving Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, 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. Over the past four and a half years, there has been a horrific civil war in Syria that began with the hopes of the Arab Spring protests of 2011. Several dictatorships have been toppled during this period and Syria has not not been spared by the demonstrations. In Syria, long-ruling dictator Bashar al-Assad refused to relinquish power and instead fought the rebellion with astonishing violence, including torturing children and gassing his own people. with chemical weapons. In response to a peaceful protest in 2011, Assad fired the first shots, signaling the start of a long, drawn-out 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 bigger problem is that the entire international community is to blame. The Assad regime certainly gets much of the blame, but Iran, Russia.