Bureaucracy at it's finest

According to KCPW, Utah is seeing an influx of Burmese refugees. I recently wrote about the problems going on in Burma right now, but most of these people have spent the last 10 years in refugee camps in Thailand or Malaysia.

These people have literally been stuck in the refugee camps for those 10 years. They had resettlement applications in, however as part of the process, they were asked if they had given food or anything else to certain organizations, which are considered terrorist groups by the US government, they answered that they had. Apparently, it didn't matter that they gave these things over because of a gun pointed at their head. They were supporters of terrorism, which made them non-people, and ineligible for resettlement here in the states.

Ineligible until now, that is. They've had advocacy groups working for them, and they were finally able to get the applications expedited.

This is just one example that makes me believe that "getting involved" is not a waste of time. The advocacy groups did get involved, and eventually were able to make a difference for about 10,000 people. So, if you're one of those people who sit around and bitch about how bad things are, but don't really do anything (that was me 2 years ago), please reconsider. You can make a difference.