I wanted to show you these orphaned young girls “Eileen Lama, Jana”, who are enduring tremendous pain this Eid, after already surviving so many sorrowful ones. And I can’t help but wonder; will they ever get to experience even one truly happy Eid?

Today I told Eileen that she is seen and loved by thousands of people around the world. WHen I asked if she had any wishes for the world, she simply replied, “Just ask them to pray for me.” She's only 8!

Our Eids once carried happiness and joy for children; but not anymore.

Now They're filled with sorrow, endless pain, the absence of loved ones, and the fear of what tomorrow might bring.

My wish for this Eid is simple, yet impossible: for the pain to be bearable, for no more children to die, for the mothers who remain to find joy in the children they still have, and for fathers to be able to protect their families from harm.

My wish is simple; to put an end to the looming death surrounding us.

I wish I could drive a dagger into the heart of the suffering that resides in our souls, and that suffering itself would become a dagger, piercing the hearts of those who take pleasure in our pain.

I wish our sorrow would rise into the clouds and that the clouds would weep upon those who caused them.

I wish I could extract the pain from our bodies and plant it as thoughts in the minds of those who refuse to feel it.

I wish that silence would die every time we do, and that betrayal would be buried forever.

I wish justice were as swift as the bombs that fall upon us. I wish we did not have to beg for the right to exist.