As the year ends I wanted to offer some good news on refugees in Georgia. The whole state is not, as the nuance-challenged (including some of my fellow Kossacks) would have it, a bunch of rednecks just because our ethically-challenged governor believes denying food to small children will keep us safe from terrorism . After all, was everyone in the nation to blame when Bush invaded Iraq? Are the residents of my native state of Massachusetts all ignorant yahoos because their governor also is anti-refugee?
Of course not, but I digress and I want to keep this short. Here are three positive things happening for refugees in my corner of Georgia—and ways you can help:
Refuge Coffee in just a few short months has become a success in its mission of providing job training for refugees and a venue for refugees and others to interact. The coffee is damn good too. Visit their Create Refuge campaign to learn how you can support their mission.
The young (okay, hipster) mayor of Clarkston, Ted Terry has been both brave and outspoken in defending this most diverse zip code in the southeast. He has garnered a lot of media coverage (even, bizarrely, the Economist) for his stand of welcoming all refugees—and is not infrequently attacked by the knuckle-draggers (someone had to elect our governor) for his stand on his Facebook page. I think you know what to do.
Finally, the International Community School (icsgeorgia.org) has, for a dozen years or more, provided a welcoming place for refugee and immigrant children and their families—and for the native-born children and their families who grow so much from learning alongside them. I know the nuance-challenged see all charter schools as the spawn of Satan, but ICS puts the lie to that—all while struggling with less dollars per pupil than mainline schools in the county system (DeKalb) of which it is a part.
So really, it’s not all bad news from Georgia.