Critical Thinking

Yesterday I wrote a little bit about the situation in Europe and today I’d like to relate to you a discussion I had with one of my cousins, a discussion that became quite heated.

I was sitting eating my breakfast in the hotel when my cousin entered, greeted me, went to get his own breakfast at the buffet and returning to the table, without even sitting down he began to relate having seen 2 separate headlines in different newspapers.  From the gist of what he said I was supposed to instantly understand, number one, what he had said, and number two, agree with something he barely was able to article.  From that a free for all (on his side) began.  It may astonish my readers to know that I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.  It was assumed that words I had spoken some 5 days previous to this episode were apropos of these mysterious headlines.  Needless to say this discussion could not go on long without a protest from moi.  Let’s say the topic was terminated for another occasion.

Essentially, the one headline said that the Danish State Minister was going to veto the citizenship applications of 2,000 persons who had written and passed their citizenship examinations.  The other headline announced that Germany would be taking in 800,000 refugees in 2015.  Somehow I was supposed to equate the one with the other.  I managed to glean that those who had written the Danish exam had been in Denmark for 7 years.  Those people were the ones who had chosen to write the exam, who knows how many more refugees had entered the country 7 years ago and how does that relate to the crisis raging in the Middle East in 2015? 

Now, the statement I had made some days previous to this discussion was that the refugees coming into Scandinavia and other north European countries were coming with their hand out, demanding money.  It was a different discussion and I was merely relating what information I was getting from other news stories and people I had been talking to from various northern countries.

Somehow these words were thrown into my face and I was accused of being a racist. 

Now here is where the critical thinking comes in.

To be accused of being a racist, even though it was in the heat of the moment, is a very disturbing thing.  I am not the type of person who can slough off any kind of characteristic thrown at me without examining the comment thoroughly.  Many years ago a dear friend noted that the first thing out of my mouth after hearing a nasty story was a vengeful retort.  I took that very much to heart and learned that indeed, my first instinct when I hear something wrong is to have an avenging thought.  It doesn’t mean that I act on it, it’s just the first impulse.  Knowing this about myself I have learned to examine my reactions carefully.

Therefore I have been examine my feelings about this Migration Crisis carefully and in particular the refugees who are fleeing from their situation.  I still feel that the Middle East crisis is too complex to have a solution, especially coming from a Western perspective.  I also feel that simply opening the doors to European countries without very specific rules of conduct is not a good solution.  The whole world is in some form of economic recession so the type of aid that has been given to refugees in the past is simply not sustainable with literally millions of new refugees flocking into Europe.  Does having these thoughts make a person a racist?  Would I feel differently if they were white, if they were not Muslim? 

I feel quite certain that the answer is no.  I don’t think a person with my capacity for justice and compassion could possibly be a racist.  A person who has recently gone through the concentration camp at Auschwitz, who has read countless stories of the horrors of Nazi Germany, could possibly turn her back on anyone who seeks refuge from any kind of a horrible situation.  But having compassion and a sense of justice doesn’t mean that I have checked common sense at the door.  At this moment the desperate refugee is not knocking at the door so I have the luxury of still being able to think “outside the situation” if you will.  For the Europeans who are facing the crisis head on – many thousands are opening their hearts, homes and borders because what else can they do?

It behooves all those in power to take a critical look at the situation and come up with global solutions and at all times, and I quote George Santayana “those who cannot remember the past are destined to repeat it”.