#WorldRefugeeDay

I've got "First World Privilege." People from war torn countries know it. No way I can know what it feels like to have a lifetime's work snatched away overnight. Or my home destroyed. Or my children lost. I've never had to just hold on to prayer or hope. There is always someone to call, a process, a service, an official, a friend. I find summertime Ramadan difficult with my A/C blasting. I can mostly say what I want. I've got the life people are thronging in the streets elsewhere to try to get a taste of. I am indignant about minor injustices - a harsher sentence for a defendant, a longer wait for a green card. I feel empowered and enormously satisfied when those injustices are corrected. Lazy, carefree self-absorbed youth, their noses buried in a phone? We should all be so lucky.

People have been chased out of their homes since the beginning of time. But if it hasn't happened to you, you can't know what it feels like to miss your own life when it's taken away from you. Your life.

So my closing thoughts on ‪#‎WorldRefugeeDay‬: People who lose everything can either succumb to the depths of despair and be destroyed and forgotten, or burn with desire to rebuild and reclaim what was taken from them, and achieve greatness. An example of what a refugee can achieve with the right mindset? Exhibit 1: Moses. Exhibit 2: Jesus. Exhibit 3: Muhammad. (pbut) Their hardships made them great. They were maligned, ridiculed, tortured and banished. Yet today billions live by their example. They united people, connecting the haves with the have-nots, mandating compassion, and ensuring that displaced people were lent a hand, not given a boot.

​If you've got First World Privilege, what are you gonna do?

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