Dear Army Of Good People:

As of now, it looks as if 500 Afghan refugees are scheduled to head to Albany, including a large number of children. There is an experienced refugee center to try to help them, and the school is willing.

The children and their parents are now being vetted in camps and military bases in different parts of the world.

They are expected to be arriving in a few months.

Bishop Maginn has contacted all appropriate governmental and non-profit refugee agencies to say Afghan refugee children are welcome at the school and will be accepted there.

The response has been very positive.

There are few institutions anywhere with more experience teaching and acclimating traumatized children from different parts of the world, getting them educated and accepted into college than Bishop Maginn.

I hope to meet some of these children and support their transition to this country by year-end. It isn’t easy.

America’s glorious history of welcoming the needy is under fire by the greedy and the bigoted.

These refugees will face a brutal time in the new America. I know many people are eager to help; the great American heart and soul beats strongly.

The Trump administration and the White Christian Nationalists setting immigration policy for four years shredded funding for immigrants and refugees.  Immigration dropped to a trickle; refugees were not permitted at all.

This administration did great harm to the very idea of immigration and refuge, for which America was once known all over the world.

As a result, the non-profit organizations who helped newcomers to America so well and for so long are now grossly understaffed and under-funded.

There is nothing left of immigration services or support but a skeleton framework left in the piece and totally unprepared for what will happen.

Our humanity is about to be tested in a new and profound way.

There is no housing yet arranged for these devastated and shaken families, no financial aid beyond a month, only one stipend of about $1,200 per family. There is no system to receive these people, arrange for work, health care, or food.

Before the Trump administration, refugees and immigrants were given housing and support for years, not days or hours. It would take billions of dollars to care for these new refugees properly, according to refugee workers.

Many Congress argue that these refugees should not be brought here or allowed to remain here, as many may be terrorists.

They will need a lot of support. It will be a difficult fight to get Congress to fund this great needy wave of people, refugees because they tried to support us and our pretense to be guardians of freedom and democracy.

I’m already working with Bishop Maginn to figure out how we can help. I have some ideas. I’m going over them with the school. The diocese is very eager to help.

First of all, we must remain focused. Our mission is to help any new Afghan students who come to Bishop Maginn. We can’t help everyone else.

We can’t help all of these needy people and their families get everything they need. That would take way too much money, much too much fundraising. It’s simply beyond what we can and should do.

In this work, the focus is everything. What we don’t do is perhaps more important than what we can do.

We need to think smart and to think small. The Army Of Good is not a wealthy organization, and my wish is that that never changes.

That will be painful and difficult for me, as I live just an hour from Albany.

So I’m limiting my focus to Bishop Maginn High School and the needs of the refugee students there, Afghan and otherwise.

I’m focusing on supporting the school with books and other supplies that will be necessary, especially as another stage of the pandemic rages.

As always, I’ll work with Principal Mike Tolan and Teacher Sue Silvertein to identify and support individual students from Afghanistan who need shoes, sweaters, socks, sneakers, boots,  supplies, some nourishing snacks, and other basic needs as the cold weather approaches.

My idea is to raise money almost entirely through our Amazon Wish Lists, which give people options about how much to spend and on what. There will be some areas and needs where Amazon doesn’t work. In that case, I’ll explain why and raise money directly on the blog.

Sometimes, simpler is better. It’s often best to give a teacher some cash and take the children to Wal-Mart for personal needs.

I am not seeking any fundraising now, as it might be months before any of the children actually arrive. These refugees face horrific challenges. They will be coming on special visas that offer them no path to citizenship.

The Afghan refugees are already being politicized in the never-ending battle between the left and the right. There is currently no support for them behind a month or two, no housing waiting for them.

Cities and towns can’t afford to pay for housing and support for this large number of refugees, and President Trump almost completely dismantled the machinery that used to care for them until they were settled.

His administration did everything possible to discourage refugees from turning to America as a home.

Bishop Maginn will not turn away any Afghan refugees for lack of tuition. We can make sure they have the books and art, and other supplies and tutoring they need.

I’m sticking to our philosophy of small acts of great kindness. Our great success in helping people came from using revolutionary online funding systems like Wish Lists and picking out struggles.

We can make sure none of these children are hungry, that they wear appropriate shoes and winter clothing, and headgear. In special cases, we can buy inexpensive computers and books.

We know what we can do, and we know what we can’t do. I’ll keep everyone posted as the refugee children get closer to Albany and the United States.

There will always be a challenging period to work to gain the trust of these brutalized children and their parents.  It won’t be simple. They have been betrayed and abandoned in every possible way.

I’ve learned a lot in recent years about how to do this

For reasons of accountability, I will continue to insist on meeting the children we help and their parents and taking their photos.

We may not use real names or any addresses if interviews would put their families or friends in Afghanistan in danger in danger. I will always get permission from parents to talk to their children; I will insist on imagery.

People help people, not policies.

So thanks for listening. I will do all that I can to help Bishop Maginn’s newest group of children mend their broken hearts and shattered lives. I’m sure many of you will do the same, and thanks for reading this.

This is a great challenge for the people who have worked with me and me.  It speaks to the kind of people we and the kind of country we want to be. I believe we are up to it.