My candidate: Ilhan Omar, US Congresswoman
Some people say we should not expect, or even wish for, people to be grateful for something like being allowed to live in a country.
I disagree. I think gratitude is good for both sides of the equation. For the person who’s grateful and the person or place that is the recipient.
I don’t expect that anyone do any more than I would. I think that’s a good measure of anything you propose: would you do it yourself?
Yes, I would and I did. When I went to China in 1976, I was the first western student of Chinese to be allowed into post-revolutionary China. Together with my Foreign Affairs colleague, Peter Rowe. We were the first to be allowed to go to Peking Languages Institute. Until then, we’d all had to go to Taiwan.
So, we were grateful for that chance. We expressed this by wearing Chinese clothes, by eating Chinese food, by studying and learning the Chinese language. And I’ve been grateful ever since.
Now, in Hong Kong, I’m grateful that I’m allowed to be a citizen here, with all the rights and obligations of a citizen.
What about Ilhan Omar?
I don’t want to go to Wikipedia, so heres’s my summary from what I recall.
She came as a young child, born in Omar, her parents Somali refugees to the United States. The U.S. accepted the family, gave them refuge. Young Ilhan went to school, and to a fine University. She then ran for U.S. Congress and won a a seat in the House of Reps, for the electorate, iirc, of Dearborn, Michigan.
When she sat in the Congress, she asked if she could wear her hijab. Until then no minority had been allowed to wear head dress, not the Jews and their Kippahs, not the Seikhs and their turbans. But they made a special case and allowed her to wear her Muslim headwear.
So: a young woman, given refuge in the US, given first world education, elected to US Congress, given special treatment in the Congress. And her reaction? Constant, bitter, nasty, hate on America. Her constituents call for “Death to America” and she cannot call it out. She is obliged by her oath to give her loyalty only to the United States, but openly gives her loyalty to Somalia.
I think the reaction of people to criticism as “go back to where you came from” is a pathetic rejoinder. But... in the case of Ilhan Omar, well....
Rand Paul said recently that he didn’t agree with telling people to “go back to where you come from”, but that if someone took up a collection to buy Omar a ticket to Somalia, to visit to see what it’s like, he’d be happy to contribute.
Me too.
Ilhan Omar has done nothing to help the United States. She has done nothing to help the American people. She has only been a divisive influence. Her presence in the United States, no matter whether refugee or not, is a net negative for the world.
If she went, it’d be good riddance.
