An Incident In Dillsburg
From the Patriot-News
- Northern York School Board Takes a Strange Route To a Good Outcom -- Editorial
"The contrast with how the board handled the other potential exchange student that night was stark. That application, from a female in Germany, prompted nary a question from the board. Nobody wondered if she might be a neo-Nazi. . . " - Amid controversy, Palestinian student allowed to attend Northern High School | PennLive.com
The board's approval didn't come without a caveat, and some passionate bantering from a packed meeting room. . . - Northern York School Board members express concern over foreign exchange student applicant | PennLiv
"Emotions ran high as a couple of Northern York County School Board members expressed hesitancy to accept a foreign exchange student applicant who hails from a sensitive war-torn area. . . "
His First Lesson?
The Northern York School District found itself the center of a minor international incident over, of all things, an exchange student.
The issue seemed to be where the young man was from. He is from the West Bank of Palestine and is Muslim. I cannot help but think if he had been a Jew from Tel Aviv that there would have been little debate over his coming to the Midstate Region of Pennsylvania.
Much of this is probably still aftershocks from the Boston Marathon bombings; people are unable to separate a radical fringe from the large, peaceful, mainstream followers of Islam. It is like using the Westboro Baptist Church as the face of Christianity.
Also the fact that he is from Palestine, a state that most in Americans see as being little more than a pair of terrorist factions battling each other for power and fighting against Israel, and by extension the Jewish Faith.
This young man is going to learn a lot about how America is, that it may be two nations.
I hope he gets a chance to see the emerging America. Harrisburg has a decent-sized Muslim community and an activist community that would be glad to hear his story. If this be the case, I will make an effort to be there.
What I fear he will see are those who let AM-Radio and its cable news outlet influence thier thinking. That simply because of where he is from, and his religion, he is a potential terrorist. I hope that his hosts don't shelter him from these "trailer park trolls", but explain why they may think the way they do.