NYT: Refugees Find Hostility and Hope on Soccer Field -Please Read

[kevinbgoode]

This article was brought to my attention through a post by Joe in DC at http://www.americablog.org....the permalink to the original post is: http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/01/you-have-to-meet-fugees.html

The New York Times ran a significant story today about the plight of refugee children trying to form and maintain soccer teams in Clarkston, Georgia - despite opposition in the city government, the mayor's office, and some hostility from other residents. It also points out people who have tried to be helpful with these children, most of whom come from places of extreme political and violent unrest. It is an inspirational story of a woman coach who has taken it upon herself to form soccer teams of children of refugees who are now legal residents in the United States. And, true to form, many of these children live in horrible poverty, often go hungry, don't have the right equipment and harbor some horrific memories of their homeland.

Though they do receive some help by good people in the Atlanta area, they also receive the typical racial slurs when they play in rural areas - remarks so hurtful that an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial about 15 months ago mentioned one player asked to carry a walkman onto the field so he wouldn't have to hear the slurs and insults. The team often lacks money to travel to some games, lacks audience support since most of the parents work as hotel maids or in other menial, low paying jobs, and they've had their playing field taken away from them several times - most recently by a city which doesn't want them using the city park.

Now this is a long story - about eight pages in the NYT, but in my mind this underscores the utter evil of ignorance which is allowed to fester in our nation, especially about refugees whose only crime is that they still struggle with English and are children who just want to have fun. The coach is, in my mind, a national treasure - a woman who has given her time, money, and dedication to these families and especially these young boys (and now girls) in order to provide them a strong foundation of friendship and team cooperation for the future. Here is one excerpt from this story by Warren St. John:

CLARKSTON, Ga., Jan. 20 — Early last summer the mayor of this small town east of Atlanta issued a decree: no more soccer in the town park.

“There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor,” Lee Swaney, a retired owner of a heating and air-conditioning business, told the local paper. “Those fields weren’t made for soccer.”

(snip)

Caught in the middle is a boys soccer program called the Fugees — short for refugees, though most opponents guess the name refers to the hip-hop band.

The Fugees are indeed all refugees, from the most troubled corners — Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Congo, Gambia, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan. Some have endured unimaginable hardship to get here: squalor in refugee camps, separation from siblings and parents. One saw his father killed in their home.

(snip)

Occasionally, though, a boy would reveal a horrific memory. One reported that he had been a child soldier. When she expressed frustration that a Liberian player tuned out during practice, another Liberian told her she didn’t understand: the boy had been forced by soldiers to shoot his best friend.

“It was learning to not react,” Ms. Mufleh said. “I just wanted to listen. How do you respond when a kid says, ‘I saw my dad shot in front of me’? I didn’t know.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/us/21fugees.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=6fc2195c79a2be61&hp&ex=1169442000&partner=homepage


The team has a web site up, which appears to have been created by the coach to help get support for their efforts. . .

http://www.fugeesfamily.org/


In my mind, Amreica is not about treating children badly - no matter where they come from - and these children and their families have suffered enough in their homelands. While I applaud my country for taking these people in, and I cheer for those Americans whose hearts understand how to truly give to others, I am appalled at some of the hostility and the blatant disregard for their welfare as handled by some of the government officials and those who would let these children play without adequate protective gear or even a simple snack. At the same time, their story is as American as any story I've ever read - in one part, members of the team get together and go door-to-door in the community, offering to rake leaves to earn enough money to cover a shortfall in funds needed for the team to travel for a match. The coach seems to be trying to instill some values into those children, most of whom have lived through some terrifying circumstances - and then they travel to some little podunk rural Georgia town and listen to the rednecks scream racial and anti-foreign remarks at them.

Every person in this country has emigrated from somewhere else. And I blame this continued treatment of others, particularly children, on the permissive attitudes of con-servatives who believe they should have a right to verbally abuse anyone they like - and remind us that their own "family values" obviously included a complete lack of manners education.

If you have the time, please read through this story - it is, to me, the kind of tale that is at the essence of what this country is all about for everyone.

[OneBlueSky]

1. great article . . . make sure you don't miss the photos and audio . . . n/t