Personal Essay: A Short Story Of A Dead Little Girl

His name was Aylan Kurdi. He was three years old, a refugee escaping from war-torn Syria. Face down he lifelessly lies in the sand in a red T-shirt and pair of shorts. A Syrian Kurd from Kobani, a town near the Turkish border that has witnessed months of heavy fighting between Islamic State and Syrian Kurdish forces. He drowned after the 15-foot boat taking him from Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos capsized shortly before dawn on Wednesday, killing 12 passengers. Aylan's 5-year-old brother, Galip, and his mother, Rehan, were also among the dead. His father, Abdullah, was the only family member to survive to tell his story, but the picture is worth a thousand words.

I thought long and hard before I re-tweeted this story. His little sneakers still

on, certainly put on by his loving parents that morning as they dressed him for the adventure ahead. Something so closely identified with us, bring back memories from our childhood, the emotional impact was huge. Being able to see ourselves there, see others we love there, seeing all of humanity being washed up beside him. Wedged in between the selfies and hashtags of your timeline Aylan lays, as if all the re-tweets and likes could save him and his family. As if all the headlines and comments could go back and stop this horrible incident. And, will the photo of the syrian boy be a turning point? Was this image able to breakthrough the clutter of family videos and meaningless mentions.
Someone once said that a person's perception of reality is a result of their beliefs. In today's age, many of those beliefs are in some ways formed or influenced via the mainstream media. Are we therefore reduced to slaves of media? mindless creatures with the attention span of a gold fish, constantly turning our attention the newest thing. Out at dinner, the couple not interacting with each other but heads down focused on their phones. Then, we turn to Twitter and post our snarky comment about how sad it is. With our friends doing the same. Our phones are constantly buzzing. The red notification has permeated our lives – it’s on our laptops, on our phones – begging us to pay attention.
This photo always comes to mind when thinking of the fast paced society that we know.

Everyone is so encompassed by there own life, being completely frazzled and lifeless, faces in there phones; oblivious to the fallen Icarus right in front of them. One scroll and the little boy is a lost memory to those who were once "so invested" to the issue. Anyone can look at a photo of a dead little boy and feel some sympathy, but what about those who really want to make a change. What about those who's research about the family, about the Syrian crisis, about the other thousands of little boys that died. What about those who don't follow an account, but instead follow an organization that will better the cause. Yet instead most of us use technology as a shield, being able to flip past the horrible images of the refugee crisis and not feel any remorse for what is on the screen. And, as the stories popularity fades and a new social phenomena comes to light, the issue is still present but invisible to us. Blocked by the media the issue is not longer an interest to us, like so many stories before it. However, the father is will still be grieving, the poor will still be poor, and that little boy will still be

dead.
It is argued that putting picture like this up on social media is offensive to the family and loutish but in today's society most of our knowledge comes from the touch of a button. this is an image that we all need to see because we need to understand that our collective failure to stop the slaughter in Syria for the last four years and not welcome the people who flee its horrors are causing people to die and suffer tremendously. And although it may not reach out to everyone, it will reach out to the right people.
Perhaps the story of Aylan Kurdi stands for much more then the loss of three year old boy, but Etched on people’s hearts and minds, the image has jolted the nation's consciousness and captured the world’s attention in a way no other story about the plight of refugees has done in recent month.