(image credit: The Associated Press)

This situation demands we view it through both micro- and macroscopic lenses. On the one hand, detailed, documented accounts of individuals like Nisrine Shiko help with the individuation of the crisis, looking at one human face within the multitude, illuminating their struggles as mothers, fathers, and children, allowing us more insight into what their plight truly looks like, and hopefully providing us a better ability to empathize and sympathize. On the other hand, there are several million people at stake and dozens of nations involved in this crisis, so it is similarly important to view the situation with respect to the big picture, realizing that neither barbed wire nor armed guards are valid solutions to the problems -- in fact, they tend to hinder rather than help. With the rise of criminal gangs, people-smuggling operations, and right-wing hate groups, with no end in sight to the turmoil in Syria and the greater Middle East, it is absolutely crucial that we seek to inform ourselves and understand this multifaceted emergency as best we can, on both interpersonal and international levels, and to apply what logical and humane remedies we can as a global community of neighbors, not strangers.