One of my best friends, Kim, lives in Hamilton,Ontario. On an adventure to Hamilton to do some house searching many, many moons ago,Kim and I were introduced and basically became instant best friends. She sharedher life story, while I listened and played with our mutual friend Cory’s cat. It really was the beginning of an awesome friendship-- from that day I knew that when my wonderful husband and I finally moved to Hamilton, there was one person Icould rely on for a hangout, an errand run, and other general fun.
Fast forward to the end of 2015 and Kim and I hadn’t seen each other in 11 months. We skyped and texted to remain incontact, but my move to Winnipeg left us thousands of miles apart. While the length of time between visits wasn’t supposed to be this long, surprise visit after re-scheduled surprise visit never ended up working out. Until Christmas…
Kim’s boyfriend bought her a surprise trip to Winnipeg for her holiday time off work. She found out on Christmas eve and arrived in Winterpeg on Christmas day! It was fun to hangout and do life together again—spending hours on the couch watching movies, colouring, drinking peach cosmo’s and obviously Taylor Swift in the form of music and concert (on apple music, haha) was involved. As much as we could jam pack our days lingering in the warmth of the apartment, I knew I would need to plan a few things to do together. One of the scheduled outings was to the Human Rights Museum.
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| Kim and I after our museum adventure. |
Even after hearing mixed reviews about themuseum, I knew Kim and I would both enjoy our time taking in all theinformation and exhibits the museum had to offer. We arrived on a chilly Sundaymorning eager to use our expired student ID’s and learn more about humanrights.
The museum was rich with information on aglobal history of how human rights have been denied to many people—from the holocaust, to the residential school system where aboriginalchildren were removed from their homes and placed elsewhere; from those withdisabilities being looked at as a sub-human, to rights of freedom of speech,hate speech and other discriminatory issues. It was eye opening to learn somany unknown facets behind common events. While some historical atrocities are knownto most people, it’s amazing how many have happened that we had no ideaabout—and how many are still happening that no one speaks of.
One display in particular which reallyresonated with me was on how our consumerism affects human rightsaround the world. The display was made up of solid white replicas of commonitems we use—canola oil, cell phones, makeup, etc. You would stand where one item was on display, touch the screen in front of you, and see the information which showshow we, as Canadians and as members of modern society, are negatively impactingthose around us. From information about minerals being mined for our cellphones, to children picking cotton for our clothing, it was a display I hope people take to heart when they visit.
The ‘inspiring change’ area was obviously my favourite part of the museum. As you journey from thefirst floor up to the seventh, you learn about both the forward strides andpitfalls of human rights around the world. It's easy to be discouraged, butit's also be a great time to reflect on what we can do to make a difference. Reflection is encouraged and a space is provided for you reflect, write and share your thoughts on a card to be displayed. Each card begins with a prompt which vary from “I Imagine…” to “I aminspired by…”, “I believe…”, “Reconciliation is…”, “Inclusion is…” and more.
As someone who is aware of some of theissues where human rights are denied in the areas of human trafficking, therewere so many things I wanted to write on all of the various cards.
“I imagine a world where humans are treatedas people with hearts and minds, and not as property to be bought and sold.”
“I believe a world with less greed will bea world where human rights problems are solved.”
“I am inspired by the stories of humantrafficking survivors who teach us to never give up hope, to fight for what isright, and who encourage us that one person speaking up for the voiceless canmake a real difference.”
While all these thoughts came to mind I wasdrawn to the “Respect is…” card.
Respect is something we give out like currency basedon the actions of those around us. Say something I don’t agree with that isperhaps slanderous to another person? You loose some respect. Stand up forsomeone? You gain respect. Make a poor business decision? Respect is lost. Makefinancially sound decisions? You are respected...
This becomes tricky. Handing out respectlike currency is like handing out joy, freedom, honesty, and even hate, jealousy and anger with price tagsattached—each one providing you with value, each one making you either a better person or a worse person. What’smore, is we openly share our personal views of other people to reflect their‘value’ in our eyes. ‘That person is weird’, ‘That person did xyz so I don’trespect them’, ‘This person is arrogant’. It’s a vicious cycle of negativitystemming from one person thinking their opinion of another is the mostimportant, and their experience dictates what another person should or shouldn’tbelieve.
“Respect is… understanding acceptancedoesn’t mean agreement. You can love + respect those with different idealswhile holding onto your own.”
Our job isn’t to judge, it’s to love andlisten and discuss and accept people regardless of what they do or what theythink. You can disagree with someone’s choices in life or opinions on thingswithout negatively dragging them down or saying they are wrong. To them, theyare right.
While this doesn’t work in all extremecases (murdering someone doesn’t gain a ‘you be you’ response), in thecase of accepting and loving our neighbors, co-workers, bank tellers, waiters, sales associates, and ‘friends of a friend’, it makes a big difference.
Respect is required. I can respect you and disagree with yourchoices. I can love you as a human being even if I don’t want to live a lifelike you do. The concept isn’t hard to understand—let’s make living it out thateasy too!
