Travel Restrictions

In the United States, we are very sheltered.  Excepting those who have actually been to the Middle East, it is very difficult for many Americans to understand what things are like there.  One of the most challenging things for people is to understand something that is totally outside their life experience.

I have not personally been to the Middle East or to East Asia.  I have friends and relatives who have served there.  When I was in the Army in Europe (early 1970’s), I had the opportunity to supervise civilian workers on a small military base who were from North Africa.  I read and listen to news broadcasts to stay informed about current events.  I monitor the opinions of informed persons that I respect.  My religious beliefs originated in the Middle East, and I have become somewhat familiar with the History of the area.

Clearly, I am not an expert.  However, I think I have done what a reasonable person would consider to be enough inquiry and observation to have informed opinions.  I will leave it to the reader to decide whether the conclusions I have drawn from the available information are correct.

To touch on a couple of perceptions, I think that in some parts of The Middle East and East Asia human life is not held in the same high regard that it is in the Western Democracies.  We need to do better, especially in our inner cities, but at least (for the last few centuries) we do not cut peoples’ heads off if they do not worship the way we do.  Unlike much of the Middle East, we do not regard women as the chattel property of their husbands and fathers.  Women can vote, drive cars, work, get educated, marry whom they choose, travel independently, hold elected office, own property, choose the clothes they wear, occupy positions of authority over men, and so on.  Please pay attention, ladies, before you advocate that transformational influences from primitive cultures be introduced into our country.

Recently, there has been a lot of controversy about President Trump’s executive order temporarily restricting aliens from certain countries in the Middle east and North Africa from entering the United States.  The matter is before the courts, but most of those who know the law agree that he had the legal authority to issue the order.  Even the preliminary opinions from the courts seem to be concerned with the fundamental fairness of President Trump’s actions, rather than their legality.

I do not think that fundamental fairness is appropriate grounds for a Federal Judge to intervene, and to temporarily restrain the legal actions of a sitting President of the United States regarding matters of national security.  There is no evidence that the constitutional rights of any U.S. citizens have been directly violated; nor have the constitutional rights of any aliens on U.S. soil.  Therefore, with respect, I say that the court should rule on existing law rather than try to manufacture new law.

Large crowds of demonstrators at home and abroad have taken to the streets to oppose President Trump’s travel restrictions.  If they are nonviolent, do not interfere with the rights of others, and do not destroy property I support their right to freedom of expression.

However, I would remind the reader that for every demonstrator, paid or unpaid, that they see on television throwing a temper tantrum, there are more ordinary Americans who agree with President Trump’s executive order; or even believe it does not go far enough.  They are too busy earning a living, raising children, and paying taxes to go to the streets … but they are very real.  Their voice was heard at the ballot box last November throughout the heartland.

I am glad that President Trump is trying to keep the terrorists out of our country.  One only needs to look to what is happening in Europe to see what happens when terrorists infiltrate refugee populations and can enter countries that do not use appropriate security measures.  I was very distressed when President Obama kept admitting more and more “refugees” into the United States from the Middle East and Northern Africa.  I am relieved that we are taking a different direction now.  I am not without compassion for the innocent victims of war who are trying to get out of harm’s way.  I support public and private humanitarian aid to relieve their suffering … where they are.

To the demonstrators, I say go home and inform yourself before you show your ignorance in public.  President Trump is trying to keep the Radical Islamists out to stop them from killing you.  You ought to thank God for protecting you from your own folly.