[PJMedia] The story couldn’t have been more heartwarming. Matiullah Matie, an Afghan refugee who is a husband and father of eight children, cried out "Salaam! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!" as he greeted a family of Hmong refugees. Matie had previously been resettled in Wausau, Wis., and had come to make the new arrivals feel at home. He also took the opportunity to talk at length to the media about his experience as a refugee, and became the exclusive focus of a WSAW report a week later. On Wednesday, however, the mediagenic Matie’s star turn came to a sudden and sickening halt: he was arrested for sexual assault.
Wausau residents did everything they could to make the Matie family feel welcome. WSAW noted that "people have been coming to their home constantly to help them with their immediate needs and to get them connected with community resources." The Maties reciprocated the kindness: "Each encounter greeted with Afghan hospitality, either some milk tea, food, or both." Matiullah Matie explained, "A person to coming here should eat and drink something with us." Marvelous!
The Matie family, said WSAW, once lived in the Afghan city of Lashkar Gah, which Afghans refer to as "Little America." Matie "worked alongside numerous U.S. agencies in Afghanistan including the Marines, Army, USAID, and Spirit of America," and "also spoke publicly against the Taliban |