We are watching something quite foreign as we watch Russia attack Ukraine. Yes, seemingly indiscriminate bombing of everything from maternity wards to areas near nuclear-power plants. But in the middle of some of the worst of man from the Russian government, we are also seeing some of the best of humanity. Radical hospitality is on display there, and that can be something quite foreign to Americans.
Perhaps it hasn’t always been like that. We have our Ellis Island history — we are a nation of immigrants. And yet, as anyone who has even a rudimentary grasp of our history, new immigrants haven’t always been welcome here. “No Irish Need Apply” wasn’t so long ago. We currently have an illegal-immigration crisis but have also had a bipartisan cruelty toward true refugees fleeing genocide and other persecution. (For all its lip service to religious freedom, the Trump administration wasn’t as generous as it should have been to Iraqi Christians, among others, living under the evil of ISIS.)
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