Syrian youth’s response to the Arab Spring in Daraa unknowingly sparked the beginning of the Syrian revolution. The graffiti on the building and wall in this picture are slogans written by a number of youth that translate "The people want the fall of the regime". 15 year old teens - inspired by events in Tunisia & Egypt and after years of oppression - wrote those words. Despite their tender age, they were arrested & subjected to torture for several weeks by Assad regime security services. Families, friends and other citizens of Daraa came out in droves to protest.
March 18, 2011, during peaceful protests, regime security forces fired on the massive, peacefully protesting crowds resulting in the first murders by the regime. The violent, explosive response by the government to peaceful protesting caused more Syrians to protest and soon spread through cities all over Syria. Two years later, over 71,000 deaths, hundreds of thousands detained, 1.2 million refugees scattered throughout the Middle East and at least 2.5 million internally displaced and the world still watches and allows the Assad regime to snipe, murder, bomb and torture his people.
When will humanity mature and demand that violence enacted by a government against the majority of its people not be tolerated? We’ve seen this happen in other parts of the globe and in our not so distant past…yet it continues…
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it -- always.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
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