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Patrick Stewart and other celebs point out 2 words people keep confusing about the refugee crisis.

'Words matter.'

The rush of people streaming out of the Middle East and into Europe is often referred to as a "migrant crisis"...

Syrian refugees near the Croatian boarder. Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images.


...which can be very misleading as many of the so-called "migrants" are actually "refugees."


An asylum-seeker on a train in Macedonia. Photo by Armend Nimani/Getty Images.

Both migrants and refugees are coming to Europe, but there's actually a pretty big difference between the two.

Craig Ferguson. All GIFs via United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees/YouTube.

Perhaps most importantly, migrants can return home if they want to. A refugee on the other hand?

It's critical to recognize that the millions of refugees crossing Europe's borders are fleeing for their very survival.

According to some estimates, over 300,000 men and women have already lost their lives in Syria's brutal civil war. Those who have left are fleeing torture, imprisonment, bombed out homes, and army service where they've been forced to kill their own countrymen.

Those of us lucky enough to reside in rich, secure countries have the luxury of debating how many asylum-seekers we feel like letting in the door. But those asylum-seekers don't have the luxury of deciding whether or not to knock.

They can't go back, and they have nowhere else to go — which is why we need to welcome them into our communities and help them start new lives.

And we need to help them now.

And the migrants coming to Europe might not need help as urgently, but that doesn't mean we should send them back either.


A raft of refugees and migrants drifting near the Greek island of Lesbos. Photo by Aris Messinis/Getty Images.

Many are running from countries were poverty is rampant and employment is scarce. If you were born somewhere, through no fault of your own, with few good jobs and fewer prospects, it makes sense to want to a move to a country, like the United States or many in Europe, where those things are abundant.

Others are seeking to reunite with family who have already made the move. If you've been living apart from your husband, or son, or wife, or daughter for years, even decades, it makes even more sense that you would move heaven and earth to try to join them.

It's a different situation, which is going to require different policy solutions. But there's nothing wrong with wanting a better life in a country where living that life is more possible.

Bottom line: It's important that when we're talking about refugees, we say "refugees" and when we're talking about migrants, we say "migrants."

Their needs are different and helping them requires different approaches.

But though their circumstances aren't the same, it's critical to treat all people who seek a safe, secure future for themselves and their families with respect and dignity.

You can watch the full video, where Patrick Stewart joins Craig Ferguson, Kristin Davis, Neil Gaiman, and others in calling on countries around the world to help seek justice for both groups:

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

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An English doctor named Edward Jenner took incredible risks to try to rid his world of smallpox. Because of his efforts and the efforts of scientists like him, the only thing between deadly diseases like the ones below and extinction are people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Don't be that parent.

Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

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A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

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Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

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Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

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