A Shocking Reminder Why We Must Never Be Silent

It has been a very difficult week for humanity. Whenever human life is lost, we must pause and reflect. When those lives are lost because of unilateral aggression and a wanton disregard for human rights, our voices must be heard. When the conflict is related to our personal tragedy, we have a responsibility. The events that have been developing over the past week in northern Syria are a horrific reminder that advances in technology, medical sciences and economics do not necessarily equate to progress in human rights. I will leave the politics of this tragedy for other forums. This is a human rights catastrophe. Regardless of your political perspectives in the tangled web we call the Middle East and in particular the Kurdish area of northern Syria, no human being should be subjected to the brutality administered by the Turks and their “allies” to the Kurdish population. How many times have we talked about the massacres and atrocities committed against the Yazidis, the Kurds, the Christians and others in Syria alone in the last seven years? Yet we profess the advances of our civilization. When these upheavals occur, we have all failed. The UN Security Council can’t agree. The great powers seem to view these atrocities as collateral damage for global politics. Everyone seems either ambivalent, depressed or powerless. This is not 1915. Or is it?