Ohio Governor Strickland - Unhumanitarian

Right on the Right has the whole story, which is being reported by the Associated Press:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday had a message for President Bush: any plan to relocate thousands of refugees uprooted by the Iraq war to the U.S. shouldn't include Ohio.

The Bush administration plans to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.

The United States has allowed only 463 Iraq refugees into the country since the war began in 2003, even though some 3.8 million have been uprooted.

Strickland, a Democrat who opposed the war as a U.S. House member, said Ohioans cannot be expected to have open arms for Iraqis displaced by the war. More than 100 Ohioans have been killed since the war began.

"I think Ohio and Ohioans have contributed a lot to Iraq in terms of blood, sweat and too many tears," Strickland said. "I am sympathetic to the plight of the innocent Iraqi people who have fled that country. However, I would not want to ask Ohioans to accept a greater burden than they already have borne for the Bush administration's failed policies."

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My Comments:
Allowing innocent refugees to suffer so that you can make a political statement about the President's policies. That's quite Christian of you there, Ted.

What applies for the undocumented migrant from Mexico and Central America who comes here illegally should, then, be even more applicable to refugees from war-torn Iraq, especially given this nation's involvement in that war. The Christian response is to "welcome the stranger". From the USCCB's Office of Migration and Refugee Services:

Catholic Social Teaching
The Judeo-Christian tradition is steeped in images of migration. Papal teaching has reflected biblical images of migration, including the plight of those fleeing danger and persecution. Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum included the right to migrate to sustain one's family. Exsul Familia, Pius XII's response to the unprecedented populations of refugees and displaced persons following World War II, called the Holy Family the "archetype of every refugee family." And Pope John Paul II, speaking in Centesimus Annus about the condition of refugees and immigrants, said that "no one can say that he is not responsible for the well-being of his brother or sister."

Governor Ted, however, has a much higher calling. His is to make President Bush look bad, even if it means turning away suffering and frightened Iraqi refugees.