I watched this very powerful video over and over again last night, and one thought kept coming into my mind.

If not for this country, Melak – the young woman in this video, a student at Bishop Maginn High School in Albany –  might well be dead or languishing in a camp for many of the best years of her life, like tens of millions of other people.

This has great resonance for me and for so many people in our country; for my parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles.

The very same thing could be said for all of them. So I had to post the video once more.

This is what is stake when we talk about refugees and immigrants and America. It is not abstract for me, or for Melak or for many of you. This is why I do what I do and will keep on doing what I do. I think of the people, not the issue.

Melak is remarkable in her own right, but to me, she has meaning even beyond her story. I’m posting my video talk with her again today because it is important and ought to be seen and shared and considered.

She lived with horrific violence every day of her life, and the irony of this is that she is one of the lucky ones, and she knows it. She got here.

Melak’s life is a riveting one; this articulate and good-hearted 16-year-old lived amidst some of the worst violence in modern times almost all of her life before coming to America. She never lost her joy and hope. That is what courage means to me.

The thing that touches me again and again about Melak’s tale is this: if America had not admitted her and her family, this precious and idealistic young woman would be lost to us; she would be killed outright or still languishing in an overcrowded, dangerous and dirty refugee camp.

Think about it. Malek would never be allowed into the United States today, and I wonder how many more Melaks lost their lives or their freedom or their hope because we shut our doors in their faces.

While we libel refugees and call them rapists and terrorists, so many good people are left hopeless or dead or maimed because of human being’s inhumanity to one another.

I don’t like to give lectures, and I never give speeches, but this is a message that needs to live and grow, and not be drowned out in the poisonous swam of our political system.

Refugees are not a political argument between the “left” and the “right” to Malek and the Malek’s of the world. It is so genuine. It is a matter of life and death.

We can’t take in all of the refugees in this world, but couldn’t we take in some?  Can’t we do the best that we can do, rather than the worst?

Bigotry and hatred and selfishness are not just disturbing or heartbreaking; they kill the Malek’s of the world. Freedom and opportunity and safety are what the American dream is all about.

Malek is the reason I began doing this work several years ago when our country and its leaders began to turn out backs on the tired and the poor, yearning to be free.

So I post this talk again, in the hope, her voice reaches out farther into the world. I hope that this video melts some hard hearts and lifts some spirits. Please watch it and pass it along if you wish. And thanks for helping to make her safe. She is so grateful, and so am I.