Every moment of every day makes it clear that ours is a world full of deeply entrenched cruelty and injustice. It can all seem insurmountable, and it can be a tough and despairing road, but this is the most that the world has ever needed each other. Our vulnerability brings us all together on Human Rights Day. It is always time to find the sacred in the ordinary of every moment of every life.
Governments are quick to put promising words to paper and then rush to commit themselves to these promises. Just as quickly they find ways to make these promises as toothless as possible. Surely it is time to go beyond empty expressions of regret and hollow reassurances. Too many higher priorities, too few resources and too little money have all been used to defend decisions to say no.
We regularly condemn politicians, CEOs, and others for their racist views, attitudes, and policies. But do we honestly reflect on our roles and responsibilities for the embedded inequities that are everywhere? It would be dishonest and disingenuous to pretend that this does not involve all of us, and that this is not the truth.
There are things dividing us, and that is because we have been practicing wedge issue politics for a long time now and as a result we have divided societies. There is a mindset of denial and resignation that we need to shed and a journey of transformation that we must start. It is time to confront denial and resignation and to distinguish the possibilities.
We need a meaningful and good-faith dialogue with Indigenous peoples to develop and guarantee a process, but not necessarily a particular result. Is it idealistic to hope that the observance of Human Rights Day can move us all back to that connective understanding that that will help to find the way to Reconciliation with the peoples who have lived on and nurtured the very earth that we stand on today?
The overwhelming issues of human rights in the world need to be told and be at the heart of how we make our rules, make our decisions, and live our lives. This is a new era where people have far more power and influence when they are united in a common sense of purpose and possibility.
With all else that is going on these days, so often these calls do not have much impact. Human Rights Day should remind us that the concern for human rights is not in the future but very much in the present. It is clearly time for a refreshed and shared sense of idealism.
I am grateful for Indigenous rights advocates across Canada who push on with struggles for fresh water. This is a struggle that all Canadians must share.
Wayne Olson represents Ward 1 on Pelham Town Council.
