refugees welcome

There is an underpass that leads to Victoria Park. As I exit it I see that the thick slobbered paint is cracking and beginning to peel in parts. Maybe it's some kind of Rorschach blotch test for me, but what the peeling paint reminded me of was a war torn refugee widow, head bowed in desolation, a scarlet shroud over her humped body as she struggles with what the world is, what it can become.

Of course, this has to do with the heartbreaking refugee crisis happening here in Europe. It has been good to see how a lot of ordinary people have responded to the horrific images, and some institutions have lead the way in dealing with the crisis the way it should be dealt with: unwavering human to human concern for another’s safety and wellbeing.
Some in the media still play the sneaky semantic games of calling them ‘migrants’ and I’m increasingly hearing people on the street ask “But what about our own homeless problem?” Without fear of contradiction (I’ve asked a few of them) the people asking this have done nothing zero nada to help homelessness either.
I say to them that we are in the worst war torn refugee crisis since WW2. I bet when you look at the plight of the Jewish people displaced and running for their lives in films and documentaries about that time your heart went out to them and you are sure that you would have helped them. Well now you have a chance. Make no mistake, this is a huge moment in history. How will future historians look back on us? How will we be seen to have reacted when people with nothing and running for their lives were in utter destitution and need?
Here we are, in a crucial moment that will define us for decades to come. We must be on the side of history. We must be on the side of humanity.

In that refugee image I imagine in the wall I have her wonder how the world can come to this. Well, we will show her that the world has also come to this: we are here for you, come in for you and yours are most welcome. Let us help you lift your eyes, lighten your burden for there are more us than there are of them. Make yourself at home.