With the publication of the incredibly powerful photograph of Aylan Kurdi, the boy who drowned while fleeing the fighting in Syria, let’s hope the world pays attention to that awful war for more than one news cycle. Aylan has become the symbol of the current refugee crisis, the largest mass migration since World War II.
Yes, the image of Aylan Kurdi is iconic, but I hope the world remembers all the un-photographed people who have died before him—and that we are finally able to come together and help stop the war(s) that are creating refugees in the first place. I sure hope a certain poem on a plaque in New York isn’t just a tourist attraction now and nothing more.
Germany has stepped up and is planning to take in 800,000 refugees, I sure hope people in the United States can stop obsessing about ISIS for long enough to accept some desperate families into our country. (Just because ISIS is fighting the evil tyrant who is killing your neighbors doesn’t mean you are a terrorist by default.) Be sure to look beyond the tragic photo and dig deeper into some of the links behind the cartoon—and help out the heroes at Doctors Without Borders and other organizations that are trying to make the world a better place against tough odds.
[poem voice over]
There once was a beach, with an awful surprise,
Just one tiny death, and we opened our eyes.
But quick we are not, he’s just one we could see.
For out of the frame were ‘bout a thousand times three.
And those were just ones, mostly drowned off the shore.
A hundred times higher, died in the war.
The millions they flee red lines that were crossed,
And millions more run, till the day they are lost.
If these were our own, displaced fleeing souls,
A hundred sixty million lives put on hold.
Fifteen hundred we let in, through our tiny golden door,
Must beware evil terror and ISIS and gore.
Showy they are, the showmen of hate,
But not close to the numbers wrought by the state.
The Germans will take most, from here and from there.
Gulf States not so much, but promise they care.
The U.S. pays billions to help refugees.
[sigh] We’ll let in some more, give us time if you please.
The biggest migration, since World War Two,
Means the most important number of all is . . . you.