Millions have escaped war and just want to live. This is how we should be talking about them.

There are things that many of us can pick in life, like a career, what we're having for dinner, or a TV channel.

GIF via "Toy Story."

Sometimes, though, you don't have a choice. A lot of us have that in common too.

None of us gets to choose the environment we're born into or what kind of privilege we have (or don't have). It just happens.

It's part of being a person in our big complicated world. It's something we all have in common.

Image via Freedom House/Flickr.

An example: Imagine your home country is in war ... and you have no choice but to escape or risk losing your life.

You don't get a say in that stuff.

That's what has happened to millions of Syrians.

They've had no choice but to get thrown into conflict and turn into a different category: refugee.

The dangerous Syrian conflict is turning millions of lives upside-down as we watch the news from the comfort of our homes. Nearly 3 million Syrians are currently stranded across camps and cities in neighboring countries and 6.5 million are displaced within Syria. Right now.

And for some reason they've lost their identities through it all, now being referred to as things like: refugees, asylum seekers, migrants. Why?

Why not just call them "people"?

It shouldn't take a photograph of a drowned Syrian boy on the shores of the Mediterranean to realize that the people who have been forced to flee their homes are people. They are humans who deserve compassion, respect, and the right to safety.

Maybe it's time we started treating and thinking of refugees as real people ... because they are.

The UN Refugee Agency estimates that 2,500 people have died just this past summer on the journey across the Mediterranean in search of safety. That's 2,500 too many.

They are all people, just like you and me.

On Sept. 30, 2015, our world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York to discuss the ongoing crisis.

We must call on them to lend support to our fellow people who are fleeing their war-torn countries. If we don't put pressure on them, they have no reason to take it seriously.

Doing one of these two things (or both if you have an extra second!) can be the difference between showing that you care — or don't.

1) Sign this petition from Call Them People addressed to world leaders.

2) Share this post to get the conversation going — and ask your friends to sign.

There are certain parts of life you don't get to have a choice in. But when you have the choice to stand for what's right and help out your fellow humans, will you do it?

For a quick background on the Syrian crisis, check out this previous piece. It breaks it down!

Thumbnail image via Freedom House/Flickr.