21
Nov
15

This Is What It Means To Be A Refugee

By Nerdy Wonka 86 Comments
Categories: All Photos
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86 Responses to “This Is What It Means To Be A Refugee”

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  1. 1 desertflower
    November 21, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    Evening.

  2. 2 Chipsticks
    November 21, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    Thanks a million Nerdy, a really stunningly powerful series of tweets, what a story.

    • 3 Nerdy Wonka
      November 21, 2015 at 7:47 pm

      It sure is Chips.

      • 4 Tally
        November 22, 2015 at 3:01 am

        Thank you so much for posting this Nerdy! I saw it the other day and it should be the front page of every newspaper in the US.

        It should also be required reading for all the Republican (and Dem) cowardly surrender monkeys who haven’t the first clue as to the process of applying for refugee status with the UN. And obviously haven’t even read any information about the attack itself, to know that ALL of the terrorists were native Europeans, mostly from Belgium, and the pristine Syrian passport that was found next to body parts was proven a fake within 24hrs. I don’t hear them calling to prevent Europeans from entering the US.

        Why on earth would a terrorist/wannabe ever make the hardest and longest choice to enter the US, when all you need is a travel visa (1 week usually, and obviously not as thorough a vetting process as applying for refugee status) and a plane ticket?

        We’re witnessing the same orchestrated distraction as we did after 9/11 when the Bush/Cheney Cabal Inc™® went after Iraq and Saddam, when all the hijackers were Saudi.

        Then Trump wanting to out-Hitler Hitler with his Mosque closing and Muslim registry plan.

        Today I was playing my nerd online MMO game, which has a chat function, and someone started dissing on PBO, doing the usual lame, “he sucks”, without saying why, just the usual brainstem-free drivel, and finally asked, “Name one thing Obama has done that is good.”

        🙂

        Wellllll…… I proceed to to school them, first with a list of the basics – Bin Laden, Double Dow, lowest unemployment in over 20 years, ended two wars, etc., then with the rant above on the event itself, and them not ever being allowed to call the French cowardly surrender monkeys ever again, since they’ve out-cowarded everyone in the less than a week. And then…. silence. 😀

        The GOP in a matter of days, have shown the world with their hysteria and overreaction, that we are truly the stupidest country on the planet, and they’re a giant bag of ignorant, scared, dickless cowards.

        So much for HOME OF THE BRAVE.

  3. 5 desertflower
    November 21, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    There are lots of people I would like vetted like this. None of them refugees.

  4. 6 desertflower
    November 21, 2015 at 7:19 pm

    Thank you Nerdy. Powerful…I feel ashamed and embarrassed.

  5. 8 MadameSoph
    November 21, 2015 at 7:35 pm

    This is profound. Thank you for sharing this.
    It reminds me of a movie I saw last year “The Golden Door” (Nuovomondo or “New World” was the Italian release title), about immigration from Sicily around 1900. My Sicilian ancestors came about 1890. Those Ellis Island immigrants had to spend a month or more before being admitted. They had to take “Intelligence” tests and go through other humiliating processes. A woman who was not married had to get a man to marry her in order to get off the Island. Many people were turned away.

    It amazes me how many people now have forgotten that their ancestors were once desperate to find a new life here. I have a client who, as a toddler, spent time in an internment camp here during WWII. He is a republican. I have been afraid to ask him about the current GOP nonsense, for fear that his answer would break my heart.

  7. 10 MadameSoph
    November 21, 2015 at 7:40 pm

    On a happier note:
    Thank you President Obama! I just got a check from my insurance company as per the ACA, since they didn’t spend enough on care and services during the year and they have to refund what they were supposed to spend to the customers. Yay! I needed the surprise extra cash this month too!

  8. 11 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    November 21, 2015 at 7:41 pm

    Congrats df 🙂

    Essential reading, NW. Thank you for posting it. Hopefully, someone will convert it into a legible graphic that can be readily accessed via a Tweet, FB, etc.

    Then, there’s what we are witnessing ‘in real time,’ incessantly …..

    #Hope4ALL

  9. 15 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    November 21, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    Memes really do matter.

    We must insist on never calling the anti-civilization barbarians, aka #DAESH, Muslims or referencing their NON-STATE locations as Islamic anything.

  10. 17 africatimes2
    November 21, 2015 at 8:18 pm

    • 18 Nena20409
      November 22, 2015 at 2:49 pm

      I read under a Crawl of a Cable Network that he won.
      Funny when Beavins won in KY two weeks ago, Sunday Talk shows were all over it.

  11. 19 jacquelineoboomer
    November 21, 2015 at 8:31 pm

    Thanks for posting this, NW – quite the eye opener. Hopefully, lots of people, who really need to see it, will.

    This part from one of the tweets could be useful in helping RWNJs and a few Democrats think about their current rhetoric relating to refugees:

    ” … as well as a class on how to act in America.”

    We don’t want those already here to miss that one.

    • 20 jackiegrumbacher
      November 21, 2015 at 10:13 pm

      Oh, Jacqueline, I would love to know what the curriculum is for that “How to Act in America” class. Given the obnoxious, bigoted, hateful behavior of many Americans I shudder to think what new immigrants would think about the difference between what they’re taught and what they actually see in the US.

      • 21 jacquelineoboomer
        November 21, 2015 at 10:28 pm

        I would, too, jackieG. I’m just now watching the Shining A Light program on my DVR. More “sights to see” in America. Hard to maintain HOPE, but we must.

        • 22 sjterrid
          November 22, 2015 at 12:29 am

          It’s on again here on Monday morning on A & E. I set my DVR, so I could watch it.

          • 23 jacquelineoboomer
            November 22, 2015 at 12:34 am

            Yes – me, too – because turns out I only recorded the other part, which was also very good. Luckily, I found the concert and will be watching it sometime Monday with you!

    • 25 Vicki
      November 21, 2015 at 10:24 pm

      Bravo, Mr.Coates.
      Between the World and Me will be read and appreciated for generations. 18 weeks and counting on the NY Times best seller list.

  13. 26 maryl1
    November 21, 2015 at 8:50 pm

    What a story! I guess I could never be a refugee; I don’t have my birth certificate, nor my parents. I do have their death certificates. I wouldn’t be able to supply half that information.

  14. 28 sherijr
    November 21, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    This is heartbreaking, thank you so much for sharing with us Nerdy and ((((Arnessa))))).

  16. 30 Nerdy Wonka
    November 21, 2015 at 8:58 pm

  17. 31 sjterrid
    November 21, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    Thank you Nerdy for highlighting these tweets from Arnessa.

    I finally got on Facebook last week, so I shared it. My name is Terri A. Diamantoukos if anyone from here wants to “friend me”.

  19. 47 bella2758
    November 21, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    POTUS will hold a press conference at 2:22am 11-22-am.

  20. 49 jacquelineoboomer
    November 21, 2015 at 9:37 pm

  21. 53 jazziz2
    November 21, 2015 at 9:53 pm

  22. 55 Vicki
    November 21, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    HAPPY NEWS!!!!! Louisiana has elected a (D) Governor. Goody-by to Bobby Jindal and no David Vitter.
    Medicaid expansion on its way.

  23. 67 rikyrah
    November 21, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    Thank you for the tweets of this woman’s journey.

  24. 68 yardarm756
    November 21, 2015 at 11:22 pm

    Spring has sprung
    and Fall has fell.
    Winter is here
    and it’s cold as hell! 😦

  25. 73 yardarm756
    November 22, 2015 at 12:19 am

    Political Aphorisms

    If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.
    ~Jay Leno~

    The problem with political jokes is they get elected.
    ~Henry Cate VII~

    We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office
    ~Aesop~

    If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these State of the Union speeches, there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to heaven.
    ~Will Rogers~

    Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
    ~ Nikita Khrushchev~

    When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.
    ~Clarence Darrow~

    Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.
    ~Author unknown~

    Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.
    ~John Quinton~

    Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
    ~Oscar Ameringer~

    I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
    ~Adlai Stevenson, 1952~

    A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.
    ~ Tex Guinan~

    I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
    ~Charles de Gaulle~

    Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.
    ~Doug Larson~

    There ought to be one day — just one — when there is open season on Congressmen.
    ~Will Rogers~

  26. 76 jacquelineoboomer
    November 22, 2015 at 12:37 am

    Goodnight, TOD! Gonna go watch a movie, until the President’s presser!

  27. 79 jacquelineoboomer
    November 22, 2015 at 2:18 am

    CNN is showing the President’s press conference – also available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live

    And goodnight!

  28. 81 bella2758
    November 22, 2015 at 2:39 am

    POTUS has started to speak at his press conference.

  29. 82 Tally
    November 22, 2015 at 4:26 am

    ok – so….. everyone is hopefully sleeping, except me, sick with the plague and on drugs which should be putting me to sleep…. but SOMEONE WAS WRONG ON THE INTERNET so I had to say something…. and I want to share!!

    it started with this post, referring to Malala’s brilliant, to the point statement: “With guns you can kill terrorists. With Education, you can kill terrorism.”

    MR FLIPPANT: It’s a nice thought, but I don’t know if it’s true. There’s been a lot of education for a long time. Almost all the members of congress have degrees. Most military officers have them. Sometimes you just got to kill someone so they’ll shut up. Then you can return to what you were talking about, peace, economic fairness, health, whatever…
    Like · Reply · 4 hrs

    TALLY to MR FLIPPANT – Apologies for the incoming wall of text (which I shall edit, since this format allows it here on TOD), but your flippancy made my head explode.

    Perhaps it’s been several decades since you’ve been in school, or had children in school, or traveled outside of the country where children are taught more about our own government that we are, but Civics hasn’t been taught in the US in over 30 years, even in neighborhoods with money, because the GOP has been starving the Dept of Education of funding since the 70’s, and most of the candidates want to abolish the DoE altogether.

    Education has deteriorated in the US, and Texas is publishing schoolbooks with creationism, and Evolution as just a theory – even though flu shots change every year, and some bacteria have grown resistant to antibiotics – like the Superbug in China right now. That’s called Evolution – that thing that Dr Ben Carson doesn’t believe in….as a Neurosurgeon – ok sure. They recently printed history books attempting to rewrite history by referring to slaves as “workers”, implying they received a wage, and had the freedom to change jobs if they so desired.

    As for members of Congress, (and sadly a majority of Americans), most of them have no idea what the process even is for applying for refugee status and that all of the Paris terrorists were Native Europeans, mostly from Belgium, and that pristine Syrian passport that was found next to burnt body parts was proven fake the very next day.

    So we’re seeing the same ignorant, orchestrated distraction as what happened after 9/11 where Bush/Chency Inc. blamed Iraq and Saddam because they wanted a war, even though the hijackers were Saudi – which were Bush/Cheney’s business partners along with the Bin Laden family who he allowed to fly out of the country unmolested the next day even though the entire country was grounded.

    And now Trump is trying to out-Hitler Hitler with his Mosque closing and Muslim registry plan.

    What education are you even referring to?

    Most of the US is a giant bag of uneducated, hateful, bigoted, cowardly surrender monkey DICKS.

    Can you not see the disconnect? France just had their largest body count since WWII – 130 as it stands today, yet that happens HERE on a monthly basis mostly perpetrated by white male, off their meds “Christians” who could’t name one things Jesus said, yet are allowed to purchase as many guns as they can afford, and the GOP has ZERO problem with that.

    But brown, Muslim and Christian Syrians who are fleeing from one of the worst devastating humanitarian catastrophes in decades, that are applying for refugee status from the UN (which takes two years) must stay OUT.

    Tell me, what terrorist would choose the hardest, longest, most detailed way of entering the US, when all you need is a Travel Visa (usually a week to process) and a plane ticket?

    I don’t see anyone calling for us to keep Europeans from entering the US, just a giant group of people who had absolutely ZERO to do with what happened in France and Mali, and are fighting to stay alive and keep their families safe. But our conservative “Christians” are being as unChrist-like as possible while refusing to even think about having reasonable gun laws here.

  30. 83 Anjo
    November 22, 2015 at 5:26 am

    Brilliant post, too bad it cant be used for a political test, no Republican would qualify for the town square much less elected office.
    CONGRATULATIONS to the people of Louisiana for refusing to replace one DUMB FUCK with another DUMBER FUCK
    Off to get ready for church, have a great Sunday all

  31. 84 Anjo
    November 22, 2015 at 5:28 am

    Please find away to send this to every republican and the dumocrats who voted with them about refugees

  33. 86 Nena20409
    November 22, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    Excellent Tweets from a Former Refugee.
    Thanks for posting them, NW.


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