This refugee crisis is boggling my mind and tearing my heart up. How can anyone have the stomach to turn these people away? If the roles were reversed, the countries denying these people entry would expect help for themselves, no question. I read and read and I don't understand. These are people. They are like you, like me. They have Facebook pages and iPhones, apartments and houses. Razor wire is erected with an attitude of triumph, like "hey, we're keeping out the pests!" The smug callousness I'm seeing is surprising me--I know, it shouldn't, but it does. How can we place any blame upon a group of people desperately trying to get away from a corrupt and tyrannical government? Will we never learn? Years and years ago, thousands upon thousands of people fled Nazi Germany, only to be turned away--I don't need to tell you how that story ended for most people.

What I want is what I can't have: I want the people who are ignoring this problem to find themselves in the same situation. I want to watch them lose everything, be hollowed-out while still trying to be strong for their children. I want to watch them kneel in the dust with their outstretched hands, begging for the smallest mercy, and watch their hands be slapped away.