Silenced So Others Could Be Heard
Lydia Joy
I became famous even though I was just a boy.
People seen my picture and it gave them tears instead of joy.
How could I have had such an impact on people I didn’t know?
When there’s thousands just like me with children of their own.
Was it because my parents embarked on an Exodus far across the sea?
They were just looking for a better life to raise my brother and me.
So many people said they did not want us; they called us names.
Saying, “Someone else can take care of them,” just passing the blame.
We weren’t looking for handouts or to make a lot of money.
We just wanted refuge from our long journey.
So why not give us a place to stay, somewhere to call our new home?
Somewhere to feel safe, so we no longer have to run.
So go ahead and write my story. Have something to tell.
But don’t use my image just to get your newspapers to sell.
Because, once I was vibrant and I was full of big dreams,
But you would never have known that until my picture you had seen.
Yes, I was different and I was taught different things.
I was a Refugee.
I was not a terrorist.
I was Human.
I was just simply three.
Remember, there are still thousands that just want to be free.
Remember, I could have been your child and You could have been Me.
~♥~
Like many of you, in the Summer of 2015, I had seen the heartbreaking photograph of Alan Kurdi, a three year old Syrian refugee whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach and heard the story of how his five year old brother and mother also drowned along with him as they tried to escape the war in Syria. I wrote this a few weeks after I saw that picture as a way to come to terms with the new and sometimes saddening world I hadn't realized I had been cut off from in many ways. Alan's story forced me to stop and think how easily he could have been anyone, including me. It made me rethink so many views I had heard over the years about race, religion and how it is so easy for so many people to turn a blind eye because of those sometimes disagreeing factors. I only seen one factor back in 2015 those few months after leaving my Christian Fundamentalist group: this was an innocent child who died way before he got to live. I wrote this while doing some much needed soul searching of my own four years ago, "So many people lack compassion. Lack humanity. Lack a heart. But that is no excuse. Excuses will not stand while humanity vanishes away." I had to realize I was one of those people, too.
To view the photograph and the story behind it, you can do so here.
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