Last Rights

Human Rights.

Most people in Western Civilization are very aware of them. We're taught to respect them, to understand them, but most of all to appreciate them.

We've been told they've come at a great cost. How many lives were shortened unfairly by tyrannical dictators? How many people died, never knowing what equality with their fellow man (or woman) could feel like.

So when some man, or woman or group tries to ensure those rights are held up they should be commended, right?

Well, put me on record as getting off the human rights bandwagon.

It's not that I don't believe we need them. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms will stand as one of the most important documents ever signed by Canadian Parliamentarians. The same can be said for those American patriots who signed the Constitution.

But Western Civilization has lost all meaning of what human rights are. For the most part, we are not challenged with where we will eat, where we will sleep, or where we can go. Our rights tell us, we can do (more or less) whatever we want. Pursue a life better than our own. To borrow from a tired phrase, 'be all that we can be.'

For the most part, nothing stands in our way but ourselves.

And, people who decide to abuse those rights for their own personal gain.

Two examples hit close to home this week. First, when Jean-Claude Duvalier, better known as dictator 'Baby Doc,' returned to Haiti from exile in France, his lawyer told media it was his right as a Haitian to return home.

The second case occured in Toronto, when a man showed up to a police funeral with a sign saying 'NO POLICE STATE' on one side, and "Soldiers Die, Electricians Die and People Die,' on the other. Eric Brazau was arrested, and not charged in the matter. However, he did go on with media for the better part of 2 days, explaining how his rights had been violated.

To both of you, you're right. You have the right to live in Haiti, should you so choose, or protest the funeral of a police officer killed in the line of duty. I have the right to call you out in this blog, and call you self serving sycophants, that couldn't wait to have their 15 minutes of fame.

But it doesn't mean you or I should. Brazau, you say it's not a matter of taste. I disagree. It could be argued that racial or homophobic slurs are a matter of taste in some cases. See Dire Straits - Money for Nothing as an example. In fact it could be argued ALL human rights are a matter of taste. What Western Civilization can stomach before we've gone too far.

Baby Doc Duvalier, what happened to all those glorious rights you trampled on while pilfering money from the sick and needy into your own accounts while you left on a self imposed exile to France for 25 years.

When people like these come forward (and these are just the latest examples) it waters down what human rights mean for those who actually need them. The sick, the poor, those living in developing nations like Sudan, Ethiopia, or Myanmar.

I'm all for rights, and believe they are an integral part of what makes us human. But next time you want to play the rights card, count me out.

It's my right.