Mind Matters: Fear is the enemy of fact

Posted by Dr. Kayta Gajdos on November 25, 2015

My Canadian friend happily relates to me over the phone how her little community is accepting Syrian refugees. She and her husband are involved in the settlement of two of these families and a local church has been instrumental in working on living arrangements. What welcome words after listening to loud diatribes in the news here about how we must “protect” ourselves from terrorism by closing the door on refugees. False claims foment fear. And our fear of the other—in this case, Syrian refugees—obscures compassion. So how do we return to the human state of compassion and dial down fear? Becoming aware of the facts can help.

One falsehood is that s Syrian refugee was involved in the recent attack in Paris. In fact, all the perpetrators involved in the Paris violence were European nationals. The one “Syrian passport” linked to the terrorism was later found by officials to have been fraudulent.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, reports that “it is not the refugee outflows that cause terrorism; it is terrorism, tyranny, and war that create refugees.” Mercy Corps, a non-profit humanitarian organization, notes that Syrians are now the largest refugee population in the world. According to World Vision, twelve million Syrians have fled their homes, half of these children. Presently there are four million Syrian refugees in five host countries: Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt.

President Obama has initiated a plan to settle ten thousand refugees in the United States, to which there has been a backlash of fear with little basis in fact. The facts are that refugees undergo more rigorous screening than anyone else being allowed into the U.S.

Consider that the Syrian refugees allowed to enter the U.S. have been waiting in refugee camps for at least eighteen months. In that time, they have undergone a rigorous process, through the UNHCR, as well as extensive interviews and background checks through the FBI, Department of Defense, National Counter-Terrorism Center, Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. Only after all checks are completed and cleared may a refugee travel to the U.S. This is by no means a trivial process.

In the U.S., non-governmental agencies, such as World Relief and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, place the refugees, not the government. Placement is not about politics, but about finding a “welcoming community” with affordable housing, employment, and public transportation.

Ah, a welcoming community. That would be one where compassion is no longer obscured by fear of the “other” because it knew the truth: that “other” is us.

Information for this article was obtained from:

mercycorps.org
whitehouse.gov
factcheck.org
unhcr.org
thinkprogress.org

The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of Chadds Ford Live. We welcome opposing viewpoints. Readers may comment in the comments section or they may submit a Letter to the Editor to: editor@chaddsfordlive.com

*Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com. See book.quietwisdom-loudtimes.com for information about her book, Quiet Wisdom in Loud Times: The Rise of the Wounded Feminine.

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.