Is this who we’ve become?

In 2017, we began to hear disparaging rhetoric regarding refugees.  All over the world we saw images of families fleeing war, famine, and persecution.  Who could forget the image of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi whose body had washed up on the beach in Turkey. 

I could only imagine how desperate a parent must be to feel that they only choice they had to protect themselves and their children was to board an overcrowded blow-up raft and travel over treacherous seas.  And how could we demonize people for just trying to save the lives of their families?  Is this who we had become?