If I’m being honest, it was not my time in the service that compelled me to stand with the refugee community. It was being a mother. It was the images of women giving birth in crowded refugee camps, families trekking hundreds of miles across Europe in search of a new home, children huddled together asleep on cardboard boxes.

Earlier this week Texas officials reiterated their concerns about refugee resettlement in the Lone Star State. In a letter to the State Department, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission objected to the proposed number of refugees coming to the state in 2016, citing concerns over the security vetting process.

The battle to bring home our Afghan wartime allies will resume when Congress reconvenes in September after its summer recess. As of now the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which has brought these allies and their families to the United States since 2009, is in danger of being dismantled by Congressional inaction.

Every year on September 11^th, Entrepreneurs for North Texas (EFNT) honors the lives lost and those forever changed by the tragic events of 9/11 through Freedom Day, an annual day of community service. Hundreds of veterans and first responders from across the Dallas-Ft. Worth area come together to remember, honor, and serve.

Like most Americans, I believed that freeing Iraq from Saddam Hussein would manifestly improve the lives of its people and make the world safer. This was a painfully naïve assumption. Since the invasion of Iraq, millions of Iraqis and middle easterners have been displaced or died violently, and the war gave birth to ISIS, which in turn contributed to the war in Syria.

Here’s another round-up of what we’ve been reading and watching this week, from the news and around the web:

On Monday, the ten athletes of the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team marched in the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games. As the team wound its way through Rio’s Maracana stadium, spectators rose to their feet and welcomed the athletes with thunderous applause.

As the United States approaches its deadline for resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016, the White House is poised to meet its goal. Despite a slow start, last month the State Department resettled 2,340 Syrians—more than the entire total settled since the goal was announced in September of last year.

By Joe Jenkins

Humayun Khan was 27 when he served in the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. The Captain was universally liked among the soldiers under his command. He was a special kind of officer—the kind that stood with his troops and made sure that they were taken care of first. He was what we enlisted men and women refer to as a “soldier’s officer.”

Here’s another round-up of what we’ve been reading and watching this week, from in the news and around the web:

Here’s another round-up of what we’ve been reading and watching this week, from in the news and around the web: