The Last Word 08-31-15

THE LAST WORD

Europe’s migrant crisis has received a lot of attention as of late, with every day seemingly bringing another dark development. But there’s another attention-worthy humanitarian crisis that people should be talking about. The number of migrants reaching Europe are very few compared with the nearly 4 million Syrians who have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, creating the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation. The aid group World Vision raised $8 million in just two weeks for Nepal earthquake victims, but have only received $2.7 million in donations throughout the past four years for Syrian refugees. Richard Stearns, the organization’s president, said the crisis is “mind numbing for the American people. They look at the Middle East, they say, ‘This is crazy. They’re all attacking each other. We don’t understand it.’ It’s like a tangled ball of yarn, and they tune it out.” There’s no hashtag, viral video or breaking news notification about the crisis; it’s our responsibility to contribute our attention, time and resources to address a devastating problem.