Human Rights

Trayvon Martin and his like may be punk-ass kids who disrespect authority but that doesn't make them deserving of a shot in the back.

Pedestrian deaths are on the rise and in the Jefferson City suburb of Saint Louis an officer encounters two black youth walking down the middle of a city street ignoring the sidewalks provided at 2 AM in the morning. When the officer confronts the teens he is flipped the bird and told to fuck off. A teen was shot in the back walking away. There are several social issues at play here. Gun-happy America and a segment of society that sees police as the enemy, a disrespect for authority in general. Youth faced with poverty and malnutrition, lack of educational opportunities, and unemployment are increasingly disaffected and filled with a sense of futility. In Northern Canada suicide rates among young people on reserves are reaching shocking proportions.

ALL LIVES MATTER

We have entered a world where online chat and texting are rapidly replacing human contact and social media sites offer devotees apps to boost their friends list lest they lose face. The cartoon showing a couple texting one another across a cafe table is no longer a joke.

Today seems to be one for human rights. This week young Trudeau apologized in Parliament for the refusal in the 30ies to allow an Indian Refugee Ship to dock in Vancouver, an event that escaped my historical study. Similar apologies have attended Residential Schools and the internment of Japanese and German Citizens during the two world wars. The CBC is airing a current events commentary on the issuance of such public apologies and their value. The principals are long since dead and the words are only symbolic. Past wrongs such as the sterilization of mentally defectives, the Butterbox Babies, the treatment of our First Nations, the failure to protect aboriginal women and prostitutes and a long list of others form a long list of abuse and neglect. If nothing else such public apologies remind us of the need to protect the vulnerable against further abuses in the future. I can think of the scandal that existed in Cornwall Ontario, the use of LSD on mental patients in Montreal, the WW#2 British Home Children just to name a few.

We need less political correctness and more caring about our fellow human beings. Too often the inhumane treatment of dogs or horses garners more attention than the torture and imprisonment of people.