Indiana Does Admit Refugees!

Indiana does admit refugees!

I have been bemused and saddened by the reactions I have seen to the Syrian refugee problem. Most of you will know my feelings on the subject as I have worked with refugees, orphans, and at-risk students for thirty years now. I was doubly distressed though, when I learned that my “home” state of Indiana weighed in on the wrong side of the human equation. Distressed because I too was a refugee of sorts, and Indiana was my refuge.

Forty-one years ago, my family moved from Michigan to Indiana when I was in the tenth grade. I had been born there, but had never lived in the state for any significant time. As a matter of fact, I had never lived anywhere for any significant period of time. We moved to Garrett in July of 1974 – it was my sixteenth school and my step father’s 37^th second chance. I am sure if they knew what was coming, many of the townspeople would not have left out the welcome mat – but most importantly, many still would have.

I lived in Garret for two years and began to hope against reason that I would graduate there and make a life in Northeast Indiana. Fate had other plans, as my step-father showed up one day with a Uhaul in November, 1976 and moved us overnight to Oklahoma. I was crushed but without options. I have detailed before how I worked and saved for a month then hitchhiked back to Garrett to finish high school. In order to do so, my best friend, Jeff, and his family, had to agree to take temporary custody of me. They did so without hesitation. So once again, Indiana had opened its doors to someone who many might have considered undesirable.

A month or so into my stay, I got into trouble with the police and was arrested for underaged drinking. My hosts were justifiably upset and ready to ship me back to Oklahoma. When they talked to my mother, she begged them to let me stay as she firmly believed my step-father and I would kill each other if I moved back. Being the good Christians they are, they gave me my first second chance and I am here today because of it. They could have easily denied the first request and even more sensibly ended the experiment the first time I screwed up. They didn’t, and I changed.

I like to think that the kindness they showed me, and the kindness I had always experienced in that little forgotten town taught me about humanity. I would also like to think that I have paid them back in my own way in other forgotten places around the world. A refugee can be a lot of things, and no one was as lost or at risk as was I forty something years ago. A group of people with no overt moral obligation lived their faith and touched me with their grace. I am living proof of that sort of investment.  And by the way, Indiana is not my home state because I was born there - It is my home state because I was redeemed there.

I, for one, will never forget my fellow human beings no matter their condition or disposition. I can’t afford to even if I wanted to – I owe too many people too much yet.