This is my granddaughter on Wednesday, face down on the floor, sleeping peacefully… safe, loved, exhausted by giggling.
Another photograph of a small child, face down on the floor, made the news on Wednesday. Face down in the sand, washed up on a beach, his smile forever extinguished.
His name was Aylan. Five other children, including Aylan’s brother, Galip, are known to have died in this one incident where refugee boats capsized.
2,500 people are known to have died in an attempt to reach safety this summer alone.
The politics shouldn’t matter. Race, faith, economics.. shouldn’t matter. The fact that such horrors have been going on, not just for the past four years with this one crisis, but since mankind began to call itself ‘civilised’… that matters. That we, who dare to think of ourselves as ‘humanity’, should allow or ignore the needless, terrified deaths of children… that should matter.
Over 200 million people are estimated to have been killed in conflicts worldwide during the 20th century… almost half of those were civilians… and how many of those were children?
We haven’t been around all that long in evolutionary terms. We call ourselves mankind, class ourselves as homo sapiens.. ‘wise man’…where is the wisdom in the death of a child?
Meanwhile, comfortable politicians wrangle and score political points deciding how many should be helped…
Fanaticism can only breed a hatred that is often misplaced and becomes, itself, that which it abhorred. Extremism still proliferates and breeds a counter-extremism, terror is met with terror. Violence, whatever the source, and in spite of all our ‘smart’ weaponry, is still indiscriminate and innocent lives are lost, wasted and blighted.
I don’t have any answers. All I know is that the senseless death of even a single child is too big a price to pay for humanity’s adolescence.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
True 😦
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hear hear, Sue
LikeLiked by 2 people
Absolutely superb, your images and words hit the reader hard, spot-on bullseye! A deeply penned, heartfelt post. Just excellent. Thank you for ‘bringing it home’ Sue! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Deborah… like so many of us, I just wish I really could.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with you Sue, it is far too high a price to pay.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Too true. Well said, Sue…
LikeLiked by 2 people
it was his little shoes that got me the most – I just thought of his parents putting them on him, wanting his feet to be protected. But then every image coming out of this is heart breaking.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I was unable to read any news yesterday or day before. I started off today with my own grandkids, another busy day. While one sleeps peacefully on my couch and the other plays contentedly next to me….I am horrified by this news and the stories I am reading today. What is wrong with us?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Truth so well stated….. Will we ever learn?
LikeLiked by 2 people
It would help if our governments who we have elected and are supposed to reflect our opinions and wishes would appear to be doing something about the root cause of this mass murder. Instead of bickering about how many refugees can be taken in and forever displaced from their homelands, perhaps they should join forces and ensure that they can all return immediately in safety. Well said Sue.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So sad. 😦
LikeLiked by 2 people
Very true Sue, it is such a sad situation…. Why we can’t just all be human about everything….
Any time children are involved, it highlights the sheer desperation of the situations…
LikeLiked by 2 people
heartwrenching
LikeLiked by 2 people
I completely agree. I was boiling this am listening to a debate on local radio. Opinion around here seems to be that we (as a nation) shouldnt help because we cant even afford to look after our own. Excuse me, but ‘our own’ live in safety with a roof over their heads, food, healthcare, schools, no bombs, no risk of being conscripted at age 10 to the local malitia, or raped by gangs of armed men…
We are so far removed from reality in our safe little corner of the world. As the mother of a disabled child, I get upset if she doesnt recieve all the care and equipment shes entitled to, but we could manage without it if it meant redirecting this money, or even some of it, to help families like this little boys.
Politicians shouldnt be arguing over how many refugees we can take, they should be dIscussing ways to end these regimes and making their home countries safe.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Reblogged this on The Town Square Cafe.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Heart-wrenching… Well-written post, Sue. Our meddling in the Middle East for the past 100 years has created so many problems– the collateral damage of our thirst for fossil fuel and the power that comes with it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
A moving and heartfelt post, Sue. We should not tforget that within those great masses of people each one is a human being – entitled to the same hopes and dreams and freedom that we enjoy. I don’t know what the answer is to the situation that they are fleeing from – all I know is that this country should not stand by and do nothing. .jx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Barrow Blogs: .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh! It’s so heart wrenching to watch the child…I couldn’t take it for long.
And, politicians everywhere are expressing their knowledge as endless debates are going on….
LikeLiked by 2 people
Important and poignant post, with your final words speaking a great truth “All I know is that the senseless death of even a single child is too big a price to pay for humanity’s adolescence”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Such a stark contrast in your photo, and that dear child that washed ashore. Your post is heartbreaking and lovely and does indeed bring it all home. Thanks, Sue. I’m hopeful that the harsh reality of the current conflict gets some global resolution. 💕
LikeLiked by 2 people
I´d say the same as others… so touching and real. I totally agree with you, Sue.
Can I reblog your post? (How can I do it? I don´t find the means).
Thanks
LikeLiked by 2 people
If you clik the post title the reblog button should be above the comments.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Sue 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
I don’t understand how anyone can see the images of children and innocence lost to war and believe that conflict is somehow justified. When I hear casualties expressed in statistics, I just want to weep at the callousness that implies these lives don’t matter, that insinuates these families are made of cardboard and have no feelings, no dreams, no humanity worth saving. Others join in the chorus for a more compassionate world and yet the killing goes on and on and on. Thanks, Sue, for expressing the outrage so many feel.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wonderful piece. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on stevetanham and commented:
I can only add my support to Sue’s heart felt post …
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on oshriradhekrishnabole and commented:
lovely child ,,Children in our humanity awake,,,, probably live with God forever childhood
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well said. I’m fed of hearing silly arguments like we are full up or must look after our own. We live in one of the riches countries in the world and it’s about time we started living up to our responsibilities.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Eric.
LikeLiked by 2 people
God, I nearly burst into tears when I read that second paragraph. I can’t cope with anything like this, not now, not now I am a mum. It’s too traumatic. I can’t imagine what his parents must be feeling… if they even made it. harrowing. and I 100% agree. no life is worth the inhumanity of refusing to give a hand, to help those that can’t help themselves. Well put Sue.
LikeLike
Only the father survived, Sacha. And no, I know. It really does hit home…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I dont actually know what to say. I cant bare thinking about it. :*(
LikeLike
I know. x
LikeLike