{"id":40869,"date":"2020-01-21T23:12:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T23:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40869"},"modified":"2020-01-21T23:12:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T23:12:28","slug":"what-right-wing-amarillo-bucks-governors-refugee-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40869","title":{"rendered":"What? Right-wing Amarillo bucks governor&#8217;s refugee ban?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=MAGA%20%23NYTimes%20%23refugees%20%23immigration&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/cattle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-40870\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/cattle-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/cattle-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/cattle-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/cattle.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>How about that New York Times, for my money the greatest newspaper in the nation if not the world? It is reporting that Amarillo, Texas, the unofficial <em>&#8220;capital city&#8221;<\/em> of the right-wing Texas Panhandle is taking a dim view of Gov. Greg Abbott&#8217;s decision to ban refugees from settling in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>We used to live in Amarillo. We had a wonderful life there. We are forging a <em>new<\/em> wonderful life in the Metroplex. But I was fully aware of Amarillo&#8217;s reputation as a hotbed for far right-wing political thought. The NY Times article suggests a latent reservoir of good will. <em>God bless Amarillo and the NY Times.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The article cites how Amarillo has been a magnet for refugees for many years. Many refugees have become part of the community. They contribute to the community&#8217;s life. They have been embraced by their neighbors. They call themselves Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott, though, has issued an order that declared that Texas would become the first state in the Union to opt out of a presidential edict that gives states the option of accepting or rejecting refugees; Abbott has shut the door on new refugees.<\/p>\n<p>That ain&#8217;t the American &#8212; or the Texan &#8212; way, governor. The Times article spells out how Amarillo has opened its door &#8212; not to mention its heart &#8212; to those who have ventured to the Panhandle, which the Times article describes as a somewhat desolate, wind-swept, dusty place.<\/p>\n<p>As the Times reports: <em>Here in Amarillo, which for a time took in more refugees per capita than any other Texas city, few share the governor&#8217;s alarm over refugees, and those who do have a far more nuanced view. They have long lived with refugees, not as abstract political talking points, but as neighbors.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Refugee Services of Texas and Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle have taken on the refugee issue head-on, helping resettle 7,000 individuals from 2007 to 2017, the Times reports.<\/p>\n<p>The article makes me proud of the city my wife and I called home for more than two decades.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the full article in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/21\/us\/refugees-states-texas-abbott.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\">New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Amarillo will remain a stronghold of support for Donald Trump and for Gov. Abbott. It is full of many fine individuals who understand that they live in a place that serves as a beacon for those who need a refuge from oppression and tyranny<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=MAGA%20%23NYTimes%20%23refugees%20%23immigration&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How about that New York Times, for my money the greatest newspaper in the nation if not the world? It is reporting that Amarillo, Texas, the unofficial &#8220;capital city&#8221; of the right-wing Texas Panhandle is taking a dim view of Gov. Greg Abbott&#8217;s decision to ban refugees from settling in Texas. We used to live &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40869\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What? Right-wing Amarillo bucks governor&#8217;s refugee ban?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2006,2245,3287,3875],"class_list":["post-40869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-greg-abbott","tag-immigration","tag-new-york-times","tag-refugees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40871,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40869\/revisions\/40871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}