This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Different skin color.

Different country of origin.

Different cultures.

Different garb.

All those features mark refugees who are coming to America to escape tumult in their home countries.

And, yes, some of them are coming to Salem and Keizer, Oregon.

To help with this issue, there is a great new program in Salem-Keizer – Salem for Refugees – which provides valuable lessons for all of us…if we take time to learn them.

I put it this way:  As the organization helps to locate refugees here, the rest of us have a great chance to show that we care about persons other than ourselves.

There are at least two reasons to do this:

• First, caring simply is the best the way mature citizens ought to act – to show respect for persons other than themselves.

• Second – and more importantly, to me – the number of new refugees in our community provides a way for Christians to show spiritual love for persons who are or could be children of God.  Refugees have the same access to God we do.

Still, there are trends in this country that decry “immigrants.”  In politics these days, fomented by Donald Trump and his ilk, immigrants have become the enemy.  Lock them up and throw away the key, Trump says. 

Or, at least, build a wall to the south so immigrants cannot enter this country.

I understand concerns over persons who try to enter this country illegally.  Leaders in Congress (if there are any), as well as in the Biden Administration, need to do more to stem that tide.  Not near enough has been done so far as political slogans get in the way of middle ground solutions.

But, those who are coming to Salem and Keizer are, to put a phrase on it, “legal refugees.”

The program I mentioned above — Salem for Refugees — started in 2016 at the church my wife and I attend here in Salem, Salem Alliance.  There were two other sponsors – Salem Leadership Foundation (SLF), and Catholic Community Services.

The refugee organization itself has grown enough now to be on its own, though with continuing support from the church, SLF, and Catholic Community Services.

Incredibly, since its start, Salem for Refugees has served more than 600 individuals, often in family groups, as they arrived in this country.  At one point, refugees coming to Oregon were directed mainly to Portland, but costs up there got out of hand, so Salem and other communities stepped up.

The list of home countries for refugees is incredible – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, the Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela, and others. 

Just stop and think about this reality for a moment. 

The displaced people probably don’t have much of the English language, nor do they know how to go about living in America.

Things are much different here than in their homeland or in a refugee camp.

Yet, they want a chance for a new life.  So, they need help.

When I explained all this to a group a couple weeks ago, I sensed a mixed reaction.  Some who heard me appeared to support the idea of helping refugees adjust to living here.  After all, some of them will be “your neighbors.”

But others appeared to wonder why support mattered.  It was as if the color of someone’s skin, the original home of refugees, and the different background of those persons supported the argument that leaving them to exist on their own was the best approach.

If this was true of some who heard me speak, it ignores this basic fact in this country:  We all are immigrants. 

Our forebears came from other countries to find a new home in America.  Mine came from Norway.

Now, as “new immigrants” arrive here, we should welcome them just as all of us were once welcomed.