I’m going to post something today that may not seem like it has that much to do with Ali and it’s probably a little more political and opinion based then you may wish to be reading from me but something’s been bugging me and I’m going to get off my chest. If you stop reading now, I won’t be offended.

I saw a letter last week that was sent home from a school in our town about a coin drive for Syrian refugees that was being organized by a group of children. I thought it was wonderful that a group of children were organizing a coin drive for people in need. I looked for some change and stuck it in Madi’s backpack so that she could participate. What better way to teach her about compassion and to help remind her how lucky she is to be safe then to give her some change to contribute? She sees the images on TV during news broadcasts, we all do. Why not take the opportunity to teach our children that we should do what we can to help, even if just in a small way? So I started talking to her about it and she told me that some of her friend’s parents think that “Syrian Refugees” (not her wording but that’s what she meant) should just go home. These people fled their country, most of them by foot because they had to choose between being slaughtered and running for their lives. They lived in fear that their homes would be blown up and that their children would be murdered. They were doctors, lawyers, teachers and engineers. There were young families, seniors and people with disabilities. They weren’t that much different then us. They were hungry, afraid and more desperate than I imagine most of us have ever been and yet, people are telling their children that they should just go home? I’ve read all over social media, amongst rumours about the refugee program in Canada (most of which are false if you actually do the research) that people feel like we need to help our veterans, our homeless, the disabled and the unemployed people in our country before helping people from another country. That’s all great, let’s help our own but please don’t use people like Ali as an excuse not to help people from other countries. We need to remember that the Syrian refugees are not coming here because they wanted to. They left their homes behind. They left all their possessions and they were separated from their families. They literally ran for their lives with the clothes on their backs. To me that doesn’t compare to an oilfield worker who lost his job or a senior who is living off a small pension. Why?  Because in Canada, we don’t have bombs falling around us and children running in the streets with machine guns. I don’t understand how as a society it is suddenly okay to be so openly prejudice against a group of people who desperately need our help. How is it okay to encourage people to turn their backs on them? I see it all over social media, all the time, posts about refugees (and even immigrants) and about why they shouldn’t be here, why we shouldn’t help them. So my question to the people who think it’s okay to speak out against this group of people who can longer help themselves is this. What happens if we ever need help? How would you feel if you had to leave your home in the dark of night because you knew that in morning it would be a pile of rubble?  What would you do if your neighbour aimed a gun at you and tried to kill you? What would make you throw your child into a dingy and float across an ocean? What would you do if when you were finally safe, nobody would help you? For followers of this page, what would happen to my family and my daughter in a place like Syria? I think about that a lot when I see the news, what happened to all the children like Ali? That’s why this is on my blog and probably why it affects me the way it does. I think we need to count our blessings and if we have to share them because we just so happen to have been born in one of the safest places in the world then that’s fine with me. If it’s not fine with you then I think you really need to do some thinking.