The sound of Montbello High School’s drum line boomed over the normal hustle and bustle of downtown Tuesday morning as people of many nations converged at the State Capitol to celebrate the millions of refugees around the world.
“Today we’ll do just that,” said Yoal Kidane Ghebremeskel, emcee for Colorado World Refugee Day. “We’ll celebrate our refugee neighbors who are teachers, doctors, police officers, business owners and so much more.”
His speech was interrupted by the sound of Indian folk music as InTandem, a flash mob of empathy, performed a Bollywood-style dance routine.
Deepali Lindblom, a professional Bollywood and Bhangra dancer, led the mob, which included many children who were born in refugee camps. She said some of the kids had been in the U.S. less than six months.
“What they need is friendship,” she said. “That is why we do a dance of empathy. Roshni (light in Urdu) is the power of art not just to entertain, but to heal, to inform and to empower.”
Interfaith Alliance of Colorado executive director Rev. Amanda Henderson led the rally in prayer.
“We know what makes us different make us stronger and more resilient and more fun,” she said. “We are the hands and feet and voices of peace.”
Travis Weiner, a veteran who did two tours in Iraq, spoke about his experiences there and said the people he encountered were good and forgiving people. He talked about the large number of refugees who were admitted to the U.S. during the Vietnam War, and referred to immigrants like Albert Einstein.
“Are these the kind of families we want to exclude,” he wondered. “This is not who we are as a nation. This is wrong. All people should be equal under the law.”
Nga Vuong-Sandoval was one of those Vietnamese refugees, riding to the U.S. as a toddler, in a cargo ship not meant for people, being transported to refugee camps in Arkansas and Alabama and finally finding a home in Colorado.
“When we give refugees a chance, we invest in individuals like me,” said Voung-Sandoval who is now an affiliate professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver and a member of Denver’s Asian-American Pacific-Islander Commission.
Daniala Mohammadi said she would have grown up where she was born, in Samanghan, Afghanistan, but had to flee for her life at age 10 because of the Taliban.
“People screamed and died around me,” she said. “They killed my grandfather and my uncle. They would have come back to kill all the female members of my family.”
In the U.S., Mohammadi persevered to graduate from Denver South High School and earned a full-ride scholarship to University of Colorado, where she plans to study biomedical engineering.
Gov. John Hickenlooper spoke last, talking about Colorado’s rich refugee history and reading a proclamation that said diversity makes the state stronger.
“What we learn from the refugee community is resiliency,” he read from the proclamation. “Their hard-working families make this state great.”
Shaunessy McNeely came from Morrison to celebrate the fact that refugees offer a view to the world outside of America.
She said her own life has been enriched by her work with the non-profit Global Refuge, which is working in countries where conflict is great, including Uganda, South Sudan, eastern Congo and Syria.
“I hope that people can see the different colors represented in the crowd and how beautiful that diversity is,” said McNeely, a nurse at Denver Health. “The different stories of survival and community here enrich our lives.”
