America Loses Its Soul

Dina Nayeri’s article America Loses Its Soul When It Rejects People Fleeing Danger recently appeared in the New York Times.

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be ‘civilized.’ It’s not caring for one’s own; animals do that. It’s not making music and art; cavemen drew and sang. It is, I believe, to live with a moral standard that takes into account our fellow man, and to ask: What do we owe one another, and what do we owe strangers?

For me, to be civilized boils down to being willing to work against our own lesser interests in order to alleviate greater suffering, no matter the sufferer’s identity or relationship to us. It is a high standard, but it is not heroism, which is putting one’s own life in real danger for another.”

Read more here.