Shut Out - Cas Young

I'm very sorry to have to live in a day and age where little boys are found dead trying to escape from their home country. Aylan Kurdi was a little boy found face down on the shore; he had drowned with his mother and his older brother in trying to escape Turkey to get to Greece. His father was the only one that made it there alive. 

Some countries in the EU want to close themselves off to the thousands and thousands of refugees that are escaping dangerous warring countries, and it shocks me to think that I live in a world and a time where there are some so selfish that they won't provide sanctuary for those who really need it. Not only is that unfortunate, the fact that there are so many people fleeing their homelands just trying to get away from fighting makes me physically sick. 

It makes me thankful for the life that I have- I don't have to deal with gunshots being fired constantly outside my window, I don't live in a warzone. I don't have to stand in lines with thousands of other refugees to get into a country that I may or may not be able to make a life in. I don't have to worry about the other members of my family turning up dead somewhere. 

Besides gratitude, it makes me think of how selfish we are as people and as governments. This issue doesn't only apply to the EU, it applies here as well. People are trying to escape their tumultuous lives so that they can make a better one somewhere else where there isn't constant war and constant fighting, and there are people who are trying to shut them out.

Little boys shouldn't die making their escape. They should grow up tall and thrive and I'm upset that I have to live in a time where that's almost too much to ask.