as a child growing up in Lincoln
Nebraska I was always curious curious
about my neighbors curious about the
world around me my mother can tell you
that even when I was five years old I
would walk up to the other children on
the playground and introduce myself and
say hi I’m Lacey and you’re my new best
friend I knew no strangers and if we’re
honest not much has really changed so it
is no surprise that for the last 15
years I have been the Welcome Wagon if
you will for the largest refugee
resettlement agency in Nebraska
welcoming thousands of people seeking
can you guess which state resettled the
most refugees per capita than any other
state in the US in 2016 we did Nebraska
has a reputation of being a place of
welcome and in fact it’s a legacy of the
United States to be a place of freedom
for those fleeing persecution and
oppression give me your tired your poor
your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free in Nebraska we take that seriously
so as you can imagine I find myself in a
really strange place right now currently
there are 68 million people displaced
around the world 68 million 68 million
honestly my brain can’t even comprehend
that number that’s like if we filled
this room a hundred and thirty six
thousand times and 25 million of those
people are children so in a time when we
are facing the largest humanitarian
crisis of a generation the United States
is closing its doors on refugees but who
are refugees refugees according to the
United Nations are people who are forced
to flee their country in fear of
persecution war violence because of
their race their ethnicity their
political opinion their membership to a
particular social group these are people
who have to leave with barely the
clothes on their backs just to stay
alive
refugees are normal people and if you
take anything away from my talk today I
want you to understand one thing that no
one chooses to be a refugee no one
imagine for a moment what it would take
for you
to leave your entire life to leave your
home your car your kids at school your
neighborhood everything it would take a
lot but imagine there’s a pounding on
your door and before you can answer it
it’s kicked in and you can hear your
children screaming for you as you’re
being pulled from them and then imagine
you’re in a dark cell and you have to
tattoo your name on your arm so that
your family can identify your dead body
because surely you’re not making out of
here alive and all of this because you
were a different religion or imagine
that your next-door neighbor that you
live next to your whole life comes to
the door carrying a bloodied machete and
he gives you a heads up you get one hour
to kill your wife because she’s of
another ethnic group so you gather her
and the kids and you run and you make it
miles from your house and you have to
cross the river that is tinted red from
the blood of your neighbors and you’re
holding your infant daughter and you are
clutching the hand of your four-year-old
son and you are praying that they do not
make a noise that they do not cry out in
fear or hunger or pain because you know
that any noise they make will mean your
deaths no one chooses to be a refugee
but do you know who does have a choice
we do we have a choice to be welcoming
even at its height the United States
only resettled less than 1% of the
world’s refugee population so the tiny
handful the tiny few that make it to
Nebraska are literally a handful in
comparison to the global crisis these
are our newest neighbors and they’re not
going anywhere
and we have a choice on how we treat our
neighbors so I’ve had a
row seat for the last nearly two decades
seeing the power and transformation that
welcome has not only on the refugees we
resettle but also on the Nebraskans like
you who welcome them so basically I’ve
been keeping the best kept secret in
Nebraska to myself and now I want to
invite you and I want to invite you like
I invited Ellie Elias synagogue
sponsored a Syrian refugee family of
seven this family had to flee their beds
in the middle of the night so that their
children wouldn’t be amongst the
thousands of children dead in Syria they
had to hold their infant twins on the
back of covered trucks and they were
separated and humiliated at the border
of Jordan and made to live in a refugee
camp Ellie thought she would buy some
groceries she would get some flowers and
come to the airport and that would be it
man was she wrong she fell in love with
this family and I and even today two
years later Ellie visits that family
twice a week so I get to see what
happens when we welcome with our whole
hearts when that Syrian mom looks at
Ellie and says you are my sister
and I also want to invite you when the
Bur the family from Burma who lived in a
refugee camp in Thailand for over 25
years
purchases their first home in the US
after only living here for two years and
then I want you to come along five years
later when they become citizens of the
United States a truly profound
experience considering they have never
been able to be citizens anywhere in the
world I personally will never forget the
time that the Somali Bantu family gave
birth to their fourth child and they
even though they couldn’t really
pronounce it so sometimes she was lazy
which whatever whatever sometimes she
was leisa but the gesture was not lost
and I also see how welcoming refugees
transforms even its harshest critics the
neighbor who hated Muslims and refugees
and was mortified when a Syrian family
moved in next door but is now called Big
Brother after many cups of tea and is
amongst their fiercest advocates and
with these invitations comes food lots
of food and you will get fed and nothing
restores dignity more than letting
someone feed you and you will get fed I
promise so welcoming refugees connects
us to our higher selves for some of us
it allows us to put our faith into
action for others it’s a way for us to
express our values as humans or as
Americans there are not a lot of
opportunities that exist to change a
life this is one of them there are not a
lot of opportunities that exist to see
the American dream alive and well this
is one of them so when we watch the news
and we feel helpless and like their
problem is too big and there’s nothing
we can do I invite you because there is
something that you can do so how do we
combat the fear and hatred of refugees
meet one thank you [Applause]
Nebraska I was always curious curious
about my neighbors curious about the
world around me my mother can tell you
that even when I was five years old I
would walk up to the other children on
the playground and introduce myself and
say hi I’m Lacey and you’re my new best
friend I knew no strangers and if we’re
honest not much has really changed so it
is no surprise that for the last 15
years I have been the Welcome Wagon if
you will for the largest refugee
resettlement agency in Nebraska
welcoming thousands of people seeking
can you guess which state resettled the
most refugees per capita than any other
state in the US in 2016 we did Nebraska
has a reputation of being a place of
welcome and in fact it’s a legacy of the
United States to be a place of freedom
for those fleeing persecution and
oppression give me your tired your poor
your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free in Nebraska we take that seriously
so as you can imagine I find myself in a
really strange place right now currently
there are 68 million people displaced
around the world 68 million 68 million
honestly my brain can’t even comprehend
that number that’s like if we filled
this room a hundred and thirty six
thousand times and 25 million of those
people are children so in a time when we
are facing the largest humanitarian
crisis of a generation the United States
is closing its doors on refugees but who
are refugees refugees according to the
United Nations are people who are forced
to flee their country in fear of
persecution war violence because of
their race their ethnicity their
political opinion their membership to a
particular social group these are people
who have to leave with barely the
clothes on their backs just to stay
alive
refugees are normal people and if you
take anything away from my talk today I
want you to understand one thing that no
one chooses to be a refugee no one
imagine for a moment what it would take
for you
to leave your entire life to leave your
home your car your kids at school your
neighborhood everything it would take a
lot but imagine there’s a pounding on
your door and before you can answer it
it’s kicked in and you can hear your
children screaming for you as you’re
being pulled from them and then imagine
you’re in a dark cell and you have to
tattoo your name on your arm so that
your family can identify your dead body
because surely you’re not making out of
here alive and all of this because you
were a different religion or imagine
that your next-door neighbor that you
live next to your whole life comes to
the door carrying a bloodied machete and
he gives you a heads up you get one hour
to kill your wife because she’s of
another ethnic group so you gather her
and the kids and you run and you make it
miles from your house and you have to
cross the river that is tinted red from
the blood of your neighbors and you’re
holding your infant daughter and you are
clutching the hand of your four-year-old
son and you are praying that they do not
make a noise that they do not cry out in
fear or hunger or pain because you know
that any noise they make will mean your
deaths no one chooses to be a refugee
but do you know who does have a choice
we do we have a choice to be welcoming
even at its height the United States
only resettled less than 1% of the
world’s refugee population so the tiny
handful the tiny few that make it to
Nebraska are literally a handful in
comparison to the global crisis these
are our newest neighbors and they’re not
going anywhere
and we have a choice on how we treat our
neighbors so I’ve had a
row seat for the last nearly two decades
seeing the power and transformation that
welcome has not only on the refugees we
resettle but also on the Nebraskans like
you who welcome them so basically I’ve
been keeping the best kept secret in
Nebraska to myself and now I want to
invite you and I want to invite you like
I invited Ellie Elias synagogue
sponsored a Syrian refugee family of
seven this family had to flee their beds
in the middle of the night so that their
children wouldn’t be amongst the
thousands of children dead in Syria they
had to hold their infant twins on the
back of covered trucks and they were
separated and humiliated at the border
of Jordan and made to live in a refugee
camp Ellie thought she would buy some
groceries she would get some flowers and
come to the airport and that would be it
man was she wrong she fell in love with
this family and I and even today two
years later Ellie visits that family
twice a week so I get to see what
happens when we welcome with our whole
hearts when that Syrian mom looks at
Ellie and says you are my sister
and I also want to invite you when the
Bur the family from Burma who lived in a
refugee camp in Thailand for over 25
years
purchases their first home in the US
after only living here for two years and
then I want you to come along five years
later when they become citizens of the
United States a truly profound
experience considering they have never
been able to be citizens anywhere in the
world I personally will never forget the
time that the Somali Bantu family gave
birth to their fourth child and they
even though they couldn’t really
pronounce it so sometimes she was lazy
which whatever whatever sometimes she
was leisa but the gesture was not lost
and I also see how welcoming refugees
transforms even its harshest critics the
neighbor who hated Muslims and refugees
and was mortified when a Syrian family
moved in next door but is now called Big
Brother after many cups of tea and is
amongst their fiercest advocates and
with these invitations comes food lots
of food and you will get fed and nothing
restores dignity more than letting
someone feed you and you will get fed I
promise so welcoming refugees connects
us to our higher selves for some of us
it allows us to put our faith into
action for others it’s a way for us to
express our values as humans or as
Americans there are not a lot of
opportunities that exist to change a
life this is one of them there are not a
lot of opportunities that exist to see
the American dream alive and well this
is one of them so when we watch the news
and we feel helpless and like their
problem is too big and there’s nothing
we can do I invite you because there is
something that you can do so how do we
combat the fear and hatred of refugees
meet one thank you [Applause]
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