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I Have A Dream Speech: The Syrian Civil Rights Movement

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Civil disobedience is a necessity in making change in our society, but in and of itself, if is rarely successful. Society takes big steps toward change when it is shown how social policies or governmental actions are impacting the most helpless among us; specifically our children.

The American Civil Rights movement began in 1950 with the Brown vs. Board of Education trial (1). Four years later it culminated in the United States Supreme Court case of the same name. That landmark decision ended segregation in schools, but kicked off a decade of social unrest in America. Birmingham, Alabama was a central point in the unrest and was a stage for much violence and bloodshed. A month after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech …show more content…

400,000 Syrians have been killed in the fighting and over 10 million Syrians have fled the country or moved to other regions of Syria. The United States and 19 Arab League countries have imposed sanctions on Syria. The United Nations Security Council has passed resolutions. (4) Through all of this, most of the western world is oblivious to what is going on in Syria. That changed on the night of August 18, 2016. The Aleppo Media Center posted a video of Omran Daqneesh, a five year old boy who lived with his family in Aleppo. Omran’s house was destroyed in an airstrike and the video shows him being carried, confused, bloodied, covered in dust to an ambulance to await help. His little feet barely extending past the seat, he rubs some blood off his face and then wipes it on the cushion, as some other child, not in Syria, might do with chocolate. The image of this boy drew global attention to Aleppo. Less than four months later, in December, 2016, after four years of fighting, Syrian government forces had taken back control of Aleppo. On December 29th, a ceasefire deal had been reached between the Syrian government and rebels. It is backed by Russia and Turkey and if it holds, peace talks will be held in early 2017 in Kazakhstan. (5) Is Omran the only reason for the ceasefire? Surely not, but the intense global spotlight shining on Syria and the heartbreaking images of how war affects the most innocent among us most

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