Women in Art 278 Magazine October 2015 | Page 7

from the editor Humans, Not Numbers Lumping together a nation welcoming refugees or a nation with an overwhelming amount of persons fleeing it, such as Syria, makes it incredibly tough to personalize the journey. We may all have nationalities and ethnicities but we are all so much more than one label. We carry labels such as mother, sister, friend, wife, artist, college graduate, farmer, painter, mentor, god mother, care-taker, etc. To simply use a label such as “Syrian refugee” as one such label clumps together a group who deserve to be seen as individuals. One such organization that does a great job personalizing stories is Humans of New York (HONY). If you are on Facebook, I’d suggest checking them out. Lately they’ve been covering some of the refugees making their way out of Syria and into European countries. They feature an image of a person or persons and share an aspect of To all those who know refugees, were themselves refugees or are dealing with an influx of refugees in their community, I hope you open your arms and eyes to the human aspect of each individual. New friendships await and having a kind soul greet them along the way is a thing of beauty that may be forever cherished. Peace to everyone. LMarelli Liesl Marelli Editor-in-Chief @LBMarelli ART en It’s tough to truly comprehend the size of that number. One in every 122 people globally. Wow. When will enough violence, persecution and