Dear Governor Walker-
Hello. I'm Rev. Dan McCurdy, a Presbyterian Minister serving a small church in Weyauwega, WI. I've only lived in Wisconsin for a couple of years now, but in that time I have learned to love its people and culture. You've got a good state here, with a foundation of solid, caring, and hard working people.
I haven't agreed with you very much over the course of these two years, but that's okay. It's just sort of how politics goes these days, right? One group firmly on one side, the other firmly on the other. But something you said recently bothers me more than other disagreement, that being when you announced that Wisconsin would not be accepting Syrian refugees.
Now I understand that you don't actually have the power to enforce that decision, no Governor does, and so I assume you said it to try to calm people frightened at who the refugees might be, and what they might do. And I get that. You're the Executive in a state full of frightened people who saw news about the attacks in Paris and get more scared every day.
We're scared because there's not a lot we can DO about ISIS. You can't really declare war on a terrorist group to start with, and even if you could, it wouldn't be the people of Wisconsin who did it. They're over there, out there, in a place where we send soldiers to get hurt or die without any real context, because we are poorly served by a media that sells fear over useful information.
And when people get scared, with nothing to do, we tend to huddle up, circle the wagons, distrust outsiders. We look around in suspicion and lash out at things not familiar. It's just the human thing to do.
Except that it isn't the Wisconsin thing to do. When I first came to this state, visiting the church that would eventually become my home, I walked into a bar near the hotel I was staying looking for some food and within three minutes someone had introduced themselves, welcomed me to this State, and bought me a beer.
Five minutes after being in a position to meet someone here, and I had already been warmly welcomed. THAT is Wisconsin. We're a State that, despite deep divisions in the political realm, would much rather get together and watch football or go fishing than have an argument or a fight. But now we're scared, and so that side of us isn't showing.
These refugees need help, Governor. They are the VICTIMS of ISIS and groups like them, the ones who were being hurt by that damaging form of Islam long before the violence reached out to Paris. Their homes, and often their families, were taken from them by violence, and they were forced to either conform to the ISIS ideology or run and possibly die.
Any of them MIGHT be bad people, it's true, but I might have been a bad person, too. That guy in the bar didn't care. Wisconsin normally doesn't. Because though we know that strangers MIGHT be bad people, we know that they probably aren't. And in this case, we know they need help.
There are some Executives who live to serve the voice of the people, who gauge what their constituents want and do their best to act accordingly. But Executives also need to lead, to point the way to a better state of being, to not act in fear, but to remind us of who we really are. This, I think, is your opportunity to really do that.
There is a young boy in my church who is also scared of ISIS. It's not very surprising, he watches the news with his parents and as those stories are designed to scare grown men and women, of course he gets frightened. He's frightened because there's nothing he can do but wait and hope nothing bad happens. Except there are things he can do.
He can help. Help those who have been hurt, show them kindness and love, laugh and play. He's good at that, I've seen it every year when he helps with the Church's giving tree. Wisconsin can DO this, Governor Walker. We can bring in refugees, find them homes and work and shelter, welcome them as other places would refuse to do.
And even in the off chance that some few of them are ISIS soldiers... there is a lot to be said for love and hospitality melting a frozen heart. We've charmed Bears and Vikings fans, Governor. How hard could Islamic Extremists be?
I know that it is a lot of responsibility being an Executive, Governor Walker. I know you are faced with a great deal of difficult choices. But in this case, I think the best way to help Wisconsin deal with the fear faced by the shadow of ISIS is to stand up, to not be afraid, to BE WISCONSIN.
I think we can do it, and I hope you'll lead the way.
Sincerely,
Rev. Daniel S. McCurdy
First Presbyterian Church
Weyauwega, WI
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