I am disgusted and ashamed at the bigoted and unnecessary vote by three Beltrami County board members against the idea of accepting refugees. I don’t know how to respond to such ignorance other than to tell my own story:
I was raised in Garrett Park, Md. My next door neighbors adopted Terry and Joe, who fled a collapsing Saigon. Terry was in my class and sat next to me on the bus. He was quiet and kind. I remember him experiencing PTSD when “The Killing Fields” movie came out. I remember him explaining this to me while I sat in the hammock in his yard.
In middle school, I was in class with Lani, who had spent years in refugee camps in Thailand. She told me what it was like to walk for days on end in search of safety and food.
In high school my best friend was Molina. Her mother fled India after a divorce from a violent husband. I spent hours with her family, studying, laughing, absorbing the smells of rich Indian food. My family attended her brother’s traditional Indian wedding.
My first date was with Farzad, who I met on a ski trip in high school. He had fled the Iranian revolution to live with his uncle. He’s now a dentist in rural Maryland with the National Health Service Corps.
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In medical school, my favorite “study buddy” was Amir. Amir came to the U.S. from Pakistan as an infant. His father, a cardiologist in rural West Virginia, cared tirelessly for coal miners and their families. I wouldn’t have survived med school without Amir. He has a family and practices medicine in Kentucky.
I did my medical residency in St. Paul and served many Hmong patients. They had been U.S. allies during the Vietnam war and came here afterward as refugees. In a welcoming city here in Minnesota, they remade themselves, learning English, sending their own children to college to become lawyers, civil servants, doctors, and politicians.
Bemidji is a tremendous community, but I do wish my children could have been exposed to the hard work, perseverance and family values that refugees embody. Growing up around them made me into a more thoughtful person, a more humble doctor, and a better mother. Please re-vote on this issue. Beltrami County has room for people. We do not have room for ignorance.
