We know what we have to do now

We had no choice. We had to watch.

The policeman had to carry the little dead boy in the red t-shirt from the beach. He has to walk those steps forever now, long after that perfect little boy is buried out of reach. We had to watch.

A mother had to grieve, wishing she could melt into the sea to simply cease feeling her unendurable pain. Or if she drowned first, she had to die knowing she could no longer help her little boy in the red t-shirt, knowing she could not save him.

We had to watch, while they had to flee homes reduced to rubble and dungeons where the screaming never stops.

And we know what we have to do now.

We have to open our borders, our homes, our hearts, we have to overthrow frontiers and turn Europe into a map of the human heart. Our governments have failed us and it is up to us to assert our own humanity. We have to help the refugees, and if we can't, we have to help anyone in a position to help them. 

We have to take responsibility for the choices we make that create the conditions they suffered, for every drought and famine that triggers off a civil war that starts with the emissions from our society's tailpipes, for every bullet and bomb sold to keep our pension fund portfolios buoyant.

We have to hold our children close and cherish every second given to us to fill their lives with joy.

And the next time we visit the beach, we have no choice but to remember a little boy in a red t-shirt who will no longer raise his castles on the sand.