Faithfully yours - An impossible dream

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Published on Saturday, July 2, 2016

By Neil Strohschein

The Neepawa Banner

One of these days, I hope to visit the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

I have driven by the museum dozens of times. It will be nice to finally go inside and spend a few hours looking at the different exhibits, gaining an appreciation for the progress Canada has made in the field of human rights and being reminded of how much work we still need to do.

As I write these words, I am fully aware of the mixed feelings that are generated whenever we read or hear the words “human rights.” For every group that demands legal recognition of their rights, there is at least one (often more) who will argue that if those demands are met, they stand to lose some of their already recognized rights. Any effort by government (and it doesn’t matter what party is in power) to find a compromise seems doomed to failure. Ultimately, the Supreme Court decides who gets what and governments have to pass the laws decreed by the court.

All of which leads me to one conclusion—we will never be able to build a society in which every citizen has all the rights to which he or she feels entitled. We won’t because, in my opinion, we can’t. There will always be those who will feel that by granting rights to someone else, the government or the court has reduced their rights. Pleasing everyone is an impossible dream.

So how do we resolve this impasse? I would like to suggest that we stop talking about rights and start talking about two concepts that, if understood and consistently applied to the lives of Canadians, will enable us to interact with others without violating their basic human rights.

The first of these is respect for the dignity and value of every individual. In Psalm 139, King David of ancient Israel praised God because he (David) “was fearfully and wonderfully made.” The prophet Jeremiah was told that long before he was conceived in his mother’s womb, God knew where and when he would be born and what kind of person he would become. On that basis, God called the yet unborn Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

What applied to Jeremiah applies to every person who ever has or ever will live on this planet. Every person on earth is a unique creation of God. Every person on earth has something of value to give to the rest of society. Every person is therefore worthy of dignity and respect.

The second concept is responsibility. We have a duty to think, speak and act in ways that will make our world a more loving, accepting, forgiving and caring place than it is now. We may not agree with the choices that some people make. We may not share their values or philosophies of life. But that does not allow any of us to treat those with whom we do not agree as second class citizens or to openly slander, belittle, mock or unleash any form of violence against them.

One final comment must be made. Respect and responsibility must be consistently practised by every person who lives within our borders. Past offenses or grievances do not give any individual or group permission to show bias, prejudice, racism, hate or any form of discrimination against those they feel did this to them in the past. There is a right way to address these grievances; and that is to seek justice. We will explore that option next week.