We all watch in wonder and fear as the gigantic Hurricane Ian slams ashore in Florida. Over 2 million refugees flee its onslaught. Reports of welcoming homes, community safety centers, food, and medical attention for these unfortunates are on the news. Also coming to the rescue are the modern knights of our utilities companies, en route to fix destroyed water, electricity, and roads.

Just one week before Ian hit, I’d just returned from a pleasant flight across our southern landscapes. In Florida, I discovered our neighbors have a governor who wants to be known as a “tough guy.” Why, you might ask? Wouldn’t they rather be seen as a gentle, warm, welcoming people living in a cool, refreshing place? In fact, one of Florida’s mayors rightly said his city is a place where “… thousands live and millions wished they did.” They inhabit a place where the sea-breeze, once felt, will never be forgotten. Or is that just for the tourists to believe, who spend cash then go away?

I don’t see where immigrants are welcomed. Just recently, Florida’s Gov. DeSantis lied to properly processed Venezuelans, telling them jobs and homes awaited them in faraway Massachusetts. What happened next should never happen in a land where we believe “All men are created equal.” The Venezuelans were deceived, then used as pieces on a game board. The Venezuelans were put on aircraft and flown north. The sinister orchestrators of this fraud must have thought, “We’ll show those sanctimonious liberals in New England who’s boss.” I suppose DeSantis’s staff got big yuks when these bewildered, benighted people arrived there, only to find no jobs or homes. The Floridians treated the Venezuelans not as real mothers, fathers, and someone’s children like you or me. No, the Venezuelans were used as pieces in a game. Pieces dumped on someone else’s front yard; not even considered human enough to be told the truth.

This scheme is not new. In 1962, in retaliation against the Civil Rights movement, Southern race-baiter segregationists thought up a plan to bus 200 Black Americans up north and dump them in front of President Kennedy’s home in Massachusetts. “Take that! Liberals!” was the point of this cynical race haters’ plot. The exploited Black people were promised homes, a job, and that the President would meet them. Indeed, one poor woman asked the bus driver to pull over before they arrived in Massachusetts. She wanted to put on nice clothes to meet the President. I’ll bet the segregationists got a laugh out of that, too.

We, in our little patch of Alabama, remember this scary statement from Mo Brooks, our now-canned 5th District Congressman. He said, “I’ll do anything short of shooting them,” referring to illegal immigrants. Such antics are inspired to make the speaker sound like a “tough hombre,” somebody not to be messed with. Ho hum. Why do you think that is?

As I fly and swoop around our county, I notice things. I’m only an Owl, but I remember back in school days when bullies liked to strut their tiny selves around the schoolyard. Who were they trying to scare? More importantly, why?

Politicians like DeSantis know that fear brings votes. If I scare you and say I’ll save you from what I just scared you about, you’ll vote for me. But what if a certain act of humanity breaks this cycle? What if, as to their eternal credit, people from places of worship in Massachusetts welcomed the travelers, fed, clothed, and protected them? The New Englanders didn’t treat them like gangsters, rapists, disease carriers, and job stealers, all of which slickster politicians try to paint them as. Why, you almost might say New Englanders treated the deceived Venezuelans as someone found beaten on the side of the road, and took care of them, no matter who they were.

We know the Nazis called Jews “Stuecke,” that is to say, “Pieces.” This dehumanized them, made them sub-human things, gangsters, rapists, disease bringing, job stealing monsters. Treating them like “pieces” made them easier to lie to, abuse, humiliate, and finally murder.

Modern Germans learned from the horrors of their Nazi past. They created a welcoming, well-planned, family-oriented process to bring in “Guest Workers.” This rational program allowed millions of foreign workers to legally enter Germany, help rebuild it, and then settle in it or return to their native lands. The process resulted in an incredible, economically mighty, welcoming, humane country. We could do the same. We could propose a rational immigration plan which would have no need to secure a border, as the process would be sought out by employer and future employee alike. We could, but first we’d need to get humane leaders who don’t need to show how tough they are, but how human. They, and we, need to treat others as we’d like to be treated. You know, like the kindness which greets those fleeing Hurricane Ian.