We could all benefit from a more childlike outlook on the world.
At this time of global unrest – our world divided by economic instability, political upheaval and widespread dissemination of fear – this has never been more apparent.
And throwing our adult cynicism into sharp perspective today is six-year-old Alex from New York, who wrote the President a letter personally offering a Syrian refugee shelter in his family’s home.
The young humanitarian was so upset by the shocking image he had seen in the news of a Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, sitting by an ambulance after his family home in rebel-held Aleppo had been destroyed by bombs.
So Alex decided to act, by offering Omran refuge.
Omran Daqneesh #Syria #Allepo #War #Children #Child pic.twitter.com/8zx6T4DPDL
— BLURZ REBIRTH (@BLURZREBIRTH) 20 September 2016
Alex wrote, ‘We will give him a family and he will be our brother.’
The young New Yorker went onto say he would share his toys and teach Omran to ride his bike, as well as how to do maths.
Alex added, ‘We can invite him to birthday parties and he will teach us another language. We can teach him English too, just like my friend Aoto from Japan.’
GIPHYBarack Obama was so touched by this message of warmth, love and unity that he read it to the UN Leaders Summit on Refugees which the President hosted two days ago.
He said:
The humanity that a young child can display, who hasn’t learned to be cynical, or suspicious or fearful of other people because of where they’re from or how they look or how they pray…
We could all learn from Alex. Imagine what the world would look like if we were. Imagine the suffering we could ease and the lives we could save.”
In this climate where we fly from outrage to outrage, reacting only momentarily to the harrowing images of war and hardship in far flung countries that we see in the news, without ever really acting to evoke change, we should all be learning from Alex’s example.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.