The spies return from scouting the land of Israel. Ten return with a negative report. They say: “All the people that we saw in it were men of great size and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves.” (Numbers 13) Every morning I read the newspapers. Every evening I watch the TV news. During the day I read online reports. The other day a father and daughter drowned in the Rio Grande while trying to cross the United States-Mexico border. Their names were Oscar Alberto and Valerie Martinez Ramirez. Many others have discovered a similar fate. Some fled worn torn Syria. Others ran from persecution in Sudan. Some escaped violence in Central America. Others left poverty in Venezuela. They see in America a promise and hope. Every morning I read the newspapers. Every evening I watch the TV news. During the day I read online reports. And that is all I seem to do. I offer up excuses for going about my day as if the plight of refugees and asylum seekers is normal. “B
"From the place where we are right flowers will never grow in the spring." Yehuda Amichai