We Americans should be ashamed

We live in a great country; most of the time we can be proud to be Americans. However, nobody is perfect. No nation is perfect. There are also times we can be ashamed to be Americans. And this is one of them.

In the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, we should all be ashamed of the ugly rhetoric we've heard, mainly from Republican politicians and conservative talk-show hosts, about Syrian refugees.

We're not talking political outliers, either. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and several Republican senators have demanded at least a pause, if not an outright ban, on accepting refugees from Syria in the United States. By last count, 25 governors (24 Republicans and one Democrat) have announced they will shut their borders to anyone from Syria, even though they have no constitutional authority to do so.

Republican presidential candidates, meanwhile, are tripping over themselves, trying to be the toughest cop on the refugee beat. They've all attacked President Obama for his goal of welcoming 10,000 refugees from Syria next year. Chris Christie would admit no refugees from Syria at all, not even 3-year-old orphans. Ben Carson would require an ideological test, while Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz would impose a religious test: admitting Christians, but no Muslims.

And all of this hysteria is based, not on facts, but on rumor, speculation, fear, hatred and outright racism. The "shut-it-down, keep-'em-out" rhetoric was triggered by reports, which turned out to be untrue, that one of the suicide bombers in Paris carried a Syrian passport and was therefore among Syrian refugees who'd recently escaped to Western Europe. That passport turned out to be fake, so we still don't know where he came from.

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What gets lost in the election-year pandering are the pertinent facts, including these: 1) According to World Relief, humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, over the last four years, since the Syrian civil war began, only about 2,000 refugees from Syria have been admitted into the United States – and 70 percent of them are women or children under 14. 2) No terrorist incident has ever been traced to any one of the 750,000 persons admitted through the American refugee resettlement program since September 11. 3) The United States already has the world's toughest screening process for refugees, a 14-step background check that lasts 18 to 24 months and involves dozens of government agencies.

Common sense tells you that if ISIS were really planning an attack in the United States, they wouldn't wait two years for some woman or child to make it through the vetting process. They'd recruit an American citizen or somebody who already has a U.S. passport. The fear of refugees as closeted terrorists is totally unfounded. But, unfortunately, this is hardly the first time it's reared its ugly head.

Historians note decades of hostility toward refugees. As reported by Huffington Post, in 1939, 67 percent of Americans opposed taking in children fleeing Nazi Germany. In 1946, 59 percent disapproved of admitting Jewish refugees from Western Europe. The United States has in turn closed our doors to refugees from Vietnam, Indochina, Haiti and Central America. Just last year, 67 percent of Americans supported a travel ban on anyone who'd been to Western Africa and been exposed to the Ebola virus.

What a contrast between America's knee-jerk rejection of refugees and the response of French President Francois Hollande. Even after terrorists struck in the heart of Paris, he announced that France would still live up to its promise of welcoming 30,000 refugees from Syria. In light of his generosity, and that of many European nations, the real question about President Obama's goal of 10,000 refugees is not: Why so many? But: Why so few?

There's one other disturbing aspect to all the Republican rhetoric about refugees: If only they cared as much about American victims of gun violence as they pretend to care about victims of terrorism. Why is it that the very same politicians who demand tougher background checks for Syrian refugees also oppose any background check for somebody buying a gun? And how can they call for such a strong response to ISIS after 129 people are killed in Paris, yet do nothing about 87 people who die of gun violence in the United States every day?

Yes, the victims of terrorism in a Paris concert hall demand attention. But so do the victims of gun violence on the streets of America.