Since the beginning of this year it is estimated that about 77,000 people have arrived in Greece by the sea, following risky trips on filthy smuggler boats. 
These people are part of the worst refugee crisis the world has ever seen and the majority are fleeing wars from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan and other Asian and African countries in hopes of reaching Europe so that they can apply for asylum. 
As a result, European societies are divided between those who want to assist the refugees and those who see them as cultural enemies. Painful images and stories related to the way the European countries deal with the refugees are published every day in the media.
While it seems quite easy to distance ourselves in the digital age, I think it is very important for us to get educated on this issue and understand that we are more related to this than we may think. 
Here are a few reasons: The United States has a moral obligation towards the refugees given the country’s major involvement in Middle East. The government just announced that they will provide asylum to 10,000 refugees from Syria — a number very small relative to the whole refugee population. 
The Internet and new media provide us with the ability to see ourselves as part of a broader, global community. As a result, we are able to acknowledge how important events in several countries are affecting the rest of the world. 
History has shown how important is humanitarian support in critical times: Many tragedies in the human history would have been avoided, if there had been prompt humanitarian intervention (examples: Yugoslavian war, Rwandan genocide). 
In the diverse Laney College community we may find many people with more personal reasons that relate to the refugee crisis. They are our friends, our classmates, our students, and our teachers.

Eirini Courtney is a Tower staff writer. Email her at eirini.courtney(at)gmail.com.