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.

Last Sunday was a day of contrasts for me.

On one hand, I attended church with my wife here in Salem, Oregon and was able to see a spirited, welcome scene – refugees from Africa performing on the church platform, wearing colorful native garb and singing to the Lord – their Lord and my Lord.

On the other hand, I came home to an e-mail challenging me and others to come out against “immigration,” a word that, unfortunately these days, has come to describe a movement that asks everyone to make new people in this country “the enemy.”

One Donald Trump is the basic architect of this “movement,” which he hopes will make people he doesn’t like enemies and chart his way to another term as president of the United States.

But just think of this:  All of us are immigrants in this country, perhaps a generation or more ago, but still immigrants.

I have written about this before, but it bears repeating.

What happened Sunday in our church was due to the work of a great new “program,” Salem for Refugees, which is more than just another “program.” 

It is an effort to welcome refugees to Salem because they are moving here in greater numbers from more than 20 countries around the world, including Afghanistan and The Ukraine, but also, as we saw Sunday, from Africa.

Those people – yes, they are “people” – on our church platform Sunday sang songs to the Lord in about seven languages, their own, English and others.

It was thrilling for me to watch them illustrate that they are children of God, just as we have the potential to be.

So, I say, welcome refugees.  Don’t tarnish them with a broad political “immigration brush.”

Recognize that God loves them.  Just as we should.