On Twitter the other evening I saw a compelling tweet from @thepottydiaries stating:
"You don't have to find words - just read, & pass on the link. Everybody should read this piece. #syria"
(with a link to this Times article)
Coincidentally I had just moments before hastily turned the page on a story in the paper about Syria because (a) I wasn't really sure what was going on there but knew it was bad and (b) I was absolutely sure that it would upset me.
However I felt compelled to click the link to the Times article and read it. And read it I did. All of it. Though it made my stomach sick and my eyes weep.
The article detailed the Houla massacre that took place in Syria last Friday in which 108 men, women and children were murdered.
The Times article began:
"The children of Houla were not killed by random shelling. The UN yesterday revealed that they were murdered one by one. The militia came in the night armed with knives and guns, and the young victims were executed with a bullet to the head or a knife to the throat. One photograph shows a cherubic baby girl, no older than 2, with a tiny gold ear-stud. She is wrapped in a white shroud. Half her skull has been hacked or blown away."
It described a number of the photos of the murdered children in graphic detail. Too graphic for me to reproduce but reading it you can feel the emotions of the journalist who had to look at those images and use his voice to tell of the atrocities.
'But what can we do?' we all ask.
Well we can bury our heads in the sand, as I often do, knowing it is too terrible to dwell on and too hopeless to take on - or we can do what we would want other people around the world to do if these were our children.
We can read and feel and share and be outraged and shout with whatever voice we have. We can add those voices together to become a roar and we can hope that those more powerful than us will listen and do something, anything, to stop the massacre of these innocents.
Today, Friday 1st June, is the day to make our roar heard.
All day today bloggers from Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Syria and other parts of the world will be writing posts, tweeting, retweeting and sharing their thoughts on Houla.
To help make our voices even louder there are two petitions that we can sign that call on world leaders to step in and stop the killing:
Save the Children
and
Avaaz.org
Yesterday morning we started off with one tweet and four people who had made the decision not to look away. By 1pm we had reached 50,000 people and made 91,000 impressions. By 3.30pm it was 77,000 and 117,000, and Syrians journalists and bloggers were getting involved. If one person tweeting a link to an article can snowball to this then just think what 77,000 can do.
There comes a tipping point in everything and it must not take another Houla for it to arrive in Syria.
Please tweet or share this post in whatever way you can to spread the message.
If you are a blogger who would like to participate please write a post and use the hashtags #tippingpoint #Syria #Stopthekilling to promote it.
