The haunting photo of a young Syrian child named Omran Daqneesh put a public face on the suffering in Aleppo. The very sight of the shell-shocked Omran sitting in an ambulance and discovering he was injured had news anchors sobbing over his plight. It seems like everyone but Gary Johnson was affected by the heartbreakingly human face Omran presented from deep within the chaos of a war-torn country.
A young U.S. boy named Alex wrote a letter to President Obama to see if he could do anything. Mainly, he’d like his family to adopt Omran and keep him safe: “We can all play together. We will give him a family and he will be our brother … We’ll be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers and balloons.” In response, Obama featured the letter during the U.N. Leaders’ Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis. Obama also posted this video — of Alex reading the letter aloud from his New York home — to his Facebook page, where it’s gathered over 8 million views. Obama wrote, “We should all be more like Alex. Imagine what the world would look like if we were.”
Well, the Trump campaign probably wouldn’t melt to witness this video. But oftentimes, children can comprehend real-world issues better than adults, who’ve spent the past week bombing aid trucks in Syria, pointing fingers, and generally refusing to stick to a ceasefire agreement.
