6-Year-Old's Plea to Adopt Syrian Boy Goes Viral

The image of a Syrian boy covered in blood after an airstrike in Aleppo touched many—including 6-year-old Alex. In a letter to President Obama, Alex asks that the president "please go get" 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh and bring him to his family's home in New York. "We will give him a family and he will be our brother," he writes. "In my school, I have a friend from Syria, Omar, and I will introduce him to Omar and we can all play together." The letter, which Obama read at the Leaders Summit on Refugees this week, has gone viral since it was posted to the White House's Facebook page, with 5.6 million views, 163,000 likes, and 106,000 shares in just 12 hours.

"Those are the words of a 6-year-old boy—a young child who has not learned to be cynical, or suspicious, or fearful of other people because of where they come from, how they look, or how they pray," reads the post. "We should all be more like Alex. Imagine what the world would look like if we were." Commenters seem to agree. Alex "has more humanity, love, and understanding than most adults," one user writes, per CNN. Another who was brought to tears says "neither of these sweet little boys, someone's sons, are Skittles." As of August, the US had taken in 10,000 Syrian refugees. Obama says another 110,000 will be accepted in the 2017 fiscal year, per the BBC. (More uplifting news stories.)