august: cleveland county

Today, many leading officials from many states have come to the conclusion that it is too difficult to sort Syrians seeking asylum from terrorists in disguise. These people think that the United States is putting itself at risk by accepting refugees from Syria. Perhaps they are right; you can never say never about these sort of things.

However, these people, who include my governor and several of my facebook friends, seem to be overlooking three major points:

It is extremely difficult to enter the United States as an asylum-seeking refugee. The US State Department lists the average processing time for an asylum seeker as 18-24 months. The backlog is enormous. The U.S. Code specifically prohibits individuals with a history of persecuting other individuals from applying for asylum. (This probably wouldn't discourage a terrorist, but it is still important to note.) These individuals must also be interviewed by a busy case worker who may only have four hours to review the entire case, including the interview, which means that any inconsistencies often result in rejection.

In September, President Obama only promised to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees next year. That is not a significant population when one considers the population of the United States (322 million). This is also not very significant when one considers the number of American citizens who engage in activities such as school shootings that incite terror each year.

Finally, if you look at Germany, these worries begin to seem a bit silly. Only one terrorist attack has taken place this year in Germany, and this was carried out by a German who injured only one other person (a policewoman). This man claimed to be an Islamist although this was disputed. Before the massive influx of refugees began in Germany in 2015, there were already over 226,000 people seeking asylum and over 216,000 additional refugees in that country.* If the amount of terrorists hiding among the Syrian refugees is as high as some seem to believe, wouldn't there have been an attack in Germany by now?

If you look at all the research and come to the conclusion that refugees should not be allowed in the United States, that is your right, but please do your research before coming to a conclusion.
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*Note: this source was last updated December 2014
Image source: Wikimedia, uploaded by Haeferl on February 16, 2013, used under creative commons.

When a terrorist attack happens in a first world country, the response is usually the same. News outlets spend their entire program looping grainy footage of the event, questionable reports are spread via social media, and many people take to social media to express their outrage and heartbreak.

I find the events that took place yesterday in Paris to be horrible and tragic, as do most of my countrymen. However, I would not say that I'm "devastated" or "heartbroken" about these events. My reaction to such news events is to learn as much as I can via internet and television, ignore social media posts that aren't from an outlet that I trust, and then to use that information along with the information I already know to try to understand the situation.

Since I'm studying international studies, I try to catch one (or three) news programs a day when my class schedule allows it. If you keep up with current events, you know that devastating events that destroy lives happen on an almost daily basis. If I fell apart every time something like this happened, I could not hope to someday enter a job where I will analyze policy, even for catastrophic events. Would you want a president or secretary of state or even a low-level policy maker who is so overcome by these events that he or she cannot think clearly? Perhaps not.

I think that we all have a role to play when something like this happens. Everyone has a responsibility to educate themselves about what has happened and why it is significant. Artists have the responsibility to express their heartbreak and contribute their creative talents to a healing process. Policy makers must remain calm in order to make the best decisions using the information that they have.

Resources

American news outlets that refrain from spreading unconfirmed reports:
NPR (radio, web)
PBS Newshour (television, web)
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Deutsche Nachrichtenagenturen:
tagesschau (Fernsehen, Web)
Deutsche Welle (Web, Radio; also in English)
Der Spiegel (Web, Zeitung; also in English; mehr Gerücht als die anderen Agenturen auf der Liste)
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Image source: @jean_jullien.

Today after a grueling google search for "blogger layouts," I discovered a template that I actually like, which increases the probability that I'll start blogging again. Since I'm entering the final months of my academic career and am looking to find a job in the next six months, I'm going to try to start blogging a bit more with an emphasis on my area of study. (I'm thinking about maybe blogging weekly on current events or perhaps just when the urge strikes.)

If you live in Germany, one of your favorite pastimes has to be complaining about the national train service, Deutsche Bahn. The trains are often a bit dirty (especially the regional trains) and they are often a few minutes late, which isn't aided by the company policy to call trains that leave less than six minutes after their stated departure times as punctual. If you've ever had the singularly unpleasant experience of catching a small train that has been overrun by a bunch of school children, one of whom is affected by motion sickness, you can be tempted to swear off the entire enterprise as hopeless and decide that renting a car is a far better option. I've been there. After spending all. day. long. on a train, it's difficult to appreciate the efficient train service. Despite all this, Deutsche Bahn actually represents the best that Germany has to offer.

This article from Germany's public television station is about security standards at German train stations following the Thalys attack last week. It points out that higher security standards that would make train stations more like airports are entirely unrealistic. I wholeheartedly agree. One of my favorite things about train travel in Germany is how simple and efficient it is. To ride on a train, you simply purchase a ticket from a kiosk, then take the stairs up to the platform and get on your train. You don't have to present your ticket at any point in the train station. You don't have to figure out how to work the ticket turnstile to get onto the platform because they do not exist in Germany. The German train system works on a good deal of good faith and common sense.

Tickets are checked after you are sitting in your seat and the train has started moving. The conductor enters the car and says "Jemand zugestiegen?" (Any new passengers?). If your ticket hasn't been punched yet, you hold out your ticket. After that, you can ignore the conductor whenever s/he comes through the car. (Unless you cross national boundaries, but that's another story.)

For me, the ticket check was always a bit nerve-wracking, especially when I had an early train and really just wanted to fall asleep. (I have before fallen asleep with my ticket in my hand out in front of me.) If you're on a regional train, the ticket checker may not even come through, especially if you're only taking a very short trip. This system works perfectly well on the honor code. I am perfectly fine with paying a bit more for my fares if that means that people who cannot afford train travel can slip by for free from time to time. (That is not the intention of the system, but I still think it's a jolly good side effect.) If you get caught without a ticket, you have to pay 40 Euros.

The article above from tagesschau.de mentions that police officers are allowed to ride free whenever they want as long as they're in uniform. This is a brilliant idea because it means that police officers are almost always present on a train in case of emergency. (It also explains why there were always police officers on the train last year...they always made me nervous, like I'd gotten on a particularly sketchy train route.) Knowing that police officers (and in the Western part of Germany, off-duty American servicewomen and men) are aboard does help to curtail crime on the trains.

The only train station that I've been to that has a lot of security is the one below the airport in Frankfurt am Main, for obvious reasons. Almost every time I've traveled through that area, there has been some sort of disruption in the train station due to unattended baggage. Every train station has signs posted and announcements that tell people not to leave their baggage unattended, but due to the train station's proximity to the airport, every piece of unattended baggage throws the entire rail system off. It was due to unattended baggage that I missed my train to Koeln on the way to Fulbright orientation. I think unattended baggage had something to do with the fiasco in Frankfurt where I saw someone fall on the tracks. Unattended baggage shut down the tunnel between the station and airport on my very last morning in Germany last July. If one train station with airport-ish security can throw off the system this badly, think of what an entire network of train stations with this security would be like! (I'm ignoring the fact that this is not a financially viable plan either - none of the train stations even have turnstiles, much less an area for security screenings.)

So you do you, Deutsche Bahn. Germans and those who reside in Germany may love to complain about you, but after a year without any real public transit (the bus system in Norman is okay, but limited), I'm really missing the freedom to wake up, jump on a tram to the train station and from there venture off to a new city or country.

(Also, this girl is living on DB trains as a school project. Interesting & in English!)

I hope you're enjoying the back to school season as much as I am!

- Chelsea

Hello, reader. It's almost May, which I am really excited about. Hence the blog title: Anticipating May! I love May, despite its often unbearable heat (or, in 2013's case, snow), for many reasons. The two biggest are that school is over in May and my birthday is at the end of the month! I have not yet outgrown being happy about my birthday...especially since this year it is set to coincide with my family's trek to Indiana to watch one of my cousins graduate from high school. Hopefully I'll get to visit Funky Bones while I'm there.

Emily and I are also going to go see Rainbow Rowell in Dallas in two weeks!! I am so excited since she's written some of my favorite books!

Also, Mumford and Sons is releasing a new album in one short week! I absolutely love the songs they played on SNL a few weeks ago, and I'm sure the rest of the album is similarly delightful.

And here are some photos: