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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Boston bombing impacting immigration debate?

    This weekend I was surprised how quickly some Facebook friends (?) seemed to use the Boston bombing to denigrate recent immigrants.  The first posting was followed by over 30 comments with most supporting the original poster's views.  This may reflect more on the original poster's friends on Facebook than any widespread reaction in our Country to this event.  While I don't see any comparable scale to our reaction after 9/11 that gave us over a decade of war I do see how tragic events can lead us into some regrettable public policies.
     After reading these posting I was amazed to read of our very own Howard County resident, Tatyana McFadden winning the women's wheelchair division at the London Marathon.  The really amazing fact is that she had just won the same division at the Boston Marathon six days earlier.  How anyone can do that is amazing to me.  I remember reading about this remarkable athlete as she fought to race for Atholton  High School track team a few years.  She won that fight and has gone onto an international track career.   
     What ties these two stories together is that Tatyana was adopted early in her life from a Russian orphanage at a young age.  Unfortunately the fact that the Boston bombers were from a Russian republic can unfairly discredit the need for our Country and Howard County to remain a welcoming place for immigrants. The amazing athletic feats of Tatyana shows how our community and nation are made better by welcoming  immigrants.

P.S.
Who knew?  Abbott and Costello knew "Hu."

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