Nov 18, 2015 2 min read

The way I hear many Americans talking anymore, we should just return the Statue of Liberty to France. It would be the greatest act of cowardice in the world for us to turn away refugees.

Who are we? Are we a nation of cowards or a nation of freedom to all who seek it? I want to know.

Our ancestors didn’t sign a Declaration of Independence because it was easy. They knew it was fraught with risk. At one time, we welcomed risk with open arms, not fingers pointing menacingly at it. We saw risk as a challenge worth accepting and completing to the best of our abilities.

So if you think we’re going to win any war on terror by taking the lazy way out, you’re resigning us to a loss. We will not win a war on terror or a war on violence by responding in turn with easy and lazy violence. As it was recently put by John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock and a Democratic candidate for U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, “If we react the way ISIS wants us to, then we are running out of their playbook, not ours.”

The only way we win a war on terror is the hard way, with freedom, and putting as many people on our team as possible. So, we either take in refugees when they need us the most, making them our allies and teaching them our playbook, or, we turn them away, make them join our enemy, and encourage them to learn our enemy’s playbook.

Which one will it be?

Zachary Ordo

Washington