We are wise to attend to the needs of refugees because they have intrinsic value to their respective societies. They, as individuals, deserve the right to participate in reknitting the social fabric of their country's nationhood, should they choose to do so. Those who flee for survival deserve the opportunity to go home and help give their country a better destiny. The world can be a brutal place, and that is why frightened people become refugees. But the world is not a treadmill of hopelessness.
Countries do mend themselves, and most refugee emergencies do find resolution.
As we continue to listen for the fire alarms sounded by the world's persecuted people, the quieter sounds of new-found peace are also worth hearing.