We'd Like To Be The World

It was human rights day was this week. December 10^th. It’s come and gone and yet I don't feel like I’m any more rights based in my approach than I was yesterday. Do you?

I remember wandering through the emptied Don jail in Toronto in 1985. It was just before they tore it down. Built in 1864 and a creepy place to be sure. Part of the movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown was filmed there in the 80’s. Canada used to hang its criminals there too. The last one we executed was on December 11^th, 1962. Not that long ago. I understand wanting to get revenge, but I’m not sure it’s in the pursuit of justice.

I was at the Don on a video shoot and decided to go exploring on one of our breaks. As I mentioned it was 1985. A good year for some and not so good for others. You should read the milestone list on Wikipedia of all that went on that year. Hijackings, ozone layer hole discovered, and major natural disasters. It’s the year that We Are The World was number 20 on the Billboard top 100 song list. Careless Whisper was number one. Anyone else find that troubling?

I probably shouldn't have been wandering. Sneaking a smoke in the dark corridors no doubt. I walked up old wooden stairs with naked light bulbs hanging right there. I passed through areas that I can still see so clearly. It’s a reminder to me that I should pay more attention to those imprints on my heart - a troubled place indeed. I walked into a cell that had a spot for two bunks and was so very small. It looked like solitary confinement. This was pre Shawshank Redemption for me. I didn't know what to expect. Graffiti all over the walls. A stark incandescent bulb lighting up the area. It was abandoned and yet felt alive with the edge, the history and the pain. I remember turning a corner and finding under a stairwell a broken box with records of prisoners spilled out on the harsh, cold concrete floor. Mug shots. They should have been under lock and key. I can still see some of the faces. Dads, brothers, sons, friends, pastors, lawyers and teachers no doubt.

So much we take for granted when it comes to the opportunities we enjoy. We feel like it’s our right in the West to so much. We have the right to good service at a restaurant, the right to transparency and accountability, the right to adequate healthcare during a life and death emergency, the right to bottle service at an overrated club, the right to a quality education for our kids and so on. Privileged access. Unfettered in most respects.

Currently The Globe and Mail is spending a lot of time talking about the shame, the cruelty and the immorality of keeping prisoners in solitary confinement. I’m reading about the abuses of the CIA and how they will be held accountable for the torture, the deceit and the lies with regard to their tactics in Afghanistan during the Bush administration.

According to most of what I’ve read solitary confinement is a bad idea for a whole lot of reasons. What about other rights though, that on some levels are even more fundamental?

Human Rights Day is about thinking and reminding us how we should treat others with regard, respect, care and concern. How do we do this to our neighbors here and there? Cambodia, Malawi, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Mongolia, Rwanda, Iqaluit or Rexdale.

So many people are living their lives without access to the most basic of needs. Malnutrition, malaria, dysentery, gender violence, loving families and disparity of all kinds are there to see if we’re willing to peel back a few global and sometimes very local layers.

Kissinger said that, “In six months no child would go to bed hungry.” That was in 1974. Think he missed the wave that would float all boats on that prediction. Maybe we can ask Kreskin.

My niece Abby is in high school in Bradford, Ontario. The school spent the 10th writing letters for Amnesty International. Probably to governments around the world about some detestable issue occurring on the other side of the globe. That’s a lot of good will. A truckload of energy and a whole lot of stamp licking going on. I like their style.

When we think about human rights issues we almost always imagine the Middle East, South East Asia and always Africa. In light of the current news making the front page it would lack a certain finesse to not think otherwise. Rights are being abused everywhere.

Watch the video to We Are the World. It has about 33 million views. That's about 2.8 million people less than are currently bonded in slavery around the world according to the global slavery report.

Once you stop laughing at the 80’s style outfits, hairdos and how young Bruce Springsteen looks, listen to the lyrics by Michael Jackson.

"We are the world, we are the children.

We are the ones who make a brighter day.

So let’s start giving."

David Peck – December 2014