Surrender Hye Jee Kim

Everyone knows about the refugee crises that's been going on. Thousands of refugees are flooding into Europe, prompting countries to take drastic action (like Hungary closing its borders). In the chaos of logistics and questions like "how will this influx of refugees impact the economy?" some are forgetting about the most important aspect. The human one.

This photo is of a young Syrian girl. Her name is Hudea. She's four. Upon seeing a photographer point his camera at her, she put her hands up in surrender. She thought the camera was a gun.


Remember when we were four years old? What were we worried about? Candy? The next episode of DragonTales? Hudea is worried about getting shot. She grew up in an environment that has more guns than cameras. And she's learned that if you don't put your hands up when someone points a gun at you, you die. That breaks my heart.

Seeing a girl, more than a decade younger than I am, knowing pain and fear and struggle that I probably will never understand breaks my heart. And I know that the refugee crises is far too complex for me to fully understand, but it seems to me that this is what people should be worried about. Not jobs being taken. Not overcrowding. This. Children losing their innocence and their parents powerless to stop it.

It hurts to even think about this picture. But it's necessary. Sometimes the most important things are the most painful ones.

I'm not sorry.