We have to walk the walk

I didn't have an opinion on the refugee crisis at the U.S.-Mexican border. I didn't know enough. Were these kids fleeing impossible violence in their homelands, or were they merely pawns in somebody else's grand scheme to beat the U.S.'s immigration laws?

By now, though, I've concluded the conditions in a few Central American countries, including Honduras and Guatemala, are horrible enough for kids that the majority of the kids showing up at the border should be considered refugees.

Here's where we have to consult the mirror.

For decades the U.S. has entreated countries bordering war zones to take in refugees. We know it's a burden, we say, but come on, please, help out: it's a humanitarian crisis.

Now it's our turn. Here's a humanitarian crisis. Are we going to step up, or not?

Most of these kids aren't doing a number on us. Anyway, due process is supposed to ferret out any that are. This is a crisis, yes, but it's not such a crisis that we're in danger of lsoing our nation over. We can absorb them, at least in the short term.

So: after decades of talking the talk to much poorer nations like Jordan, are we going to walk the walk, or not?