Dear Syrian Refugees,
Our hearts break for you. They break when your homes are reduced to rubble in a senseless civil war. When smugglers cram you onto boats with little drinking water for a hopeless journey they say takes hours but actually requires days. When troops meet your weary families at borders to turn you away. When your child washes up on a beach lifeless.
We don’t have the power to remove these impediments. The federal government, not magazine editors, will decide whether to let you into our country and, if so, how many of your desperate millions to accept. But we can promise this: If you make it to St. Louis, we’ll welcome you. Already a few Syrians have made it here, and a growing grassroots effort is under way to bring more.
We’ve done this before. In the ’90s, thousands of people fleeing war-torn Bosnia moved to our city. They found homes and jobs. They revitalized neighborhoods and boosted our sinking population. St. Louis has its own problems. Last year, a few hateful teenagers murdered a Bosnian man. But there is the opportunity here for a better life. Just ask our mayor, Francis Slay, the descendant of Lebanese immigrants.
With Heart Broken and arms Open,
William Powell
