IMAGINE

Living in a small town in the middle of the prairie it is easy to feel safe and secure from immediate physical danger. The other day however I was struck by an analyst’s comment that “one should never be complacent about social responsibility”. Regardless of where you fall in your personal or political beliefs it is vital to ensure that we don’t take our freedoms for granted because it is remarkable how quickly they can disappear.

I remember feeling shocked that the world effectively allowed Russia to take over the Crimea shortly after the Olympics and then take over the Ukraine. Where was the pushback? I had questions about the world’s outcry over the religious warfare in Romania while no one had interfered with the violence in Ireland. It seemed to me that there was a lot of cherry-picking going on with respect what democratic rights the “world” would defend and which they would step away from. The most outrageous and little-known infraction on democracy happened in the USA for a full century where all African Americans could not vote in their own country until 1964. How did that happen, and how could Americans (including African Americans) go out and fight for democracy in other parts of the world when they didn’t have those rights for 100% of their own people?

Fighting isn’t the answer, leading by example is the answer and there are countries who truly exemplify real democracy. I feel very happy to be able to say that Canada is one of those countries and despite me not being a Liberal, or even a fan of Justin Trudeau, I must commend him on his stand on a variety of issues and concerns that have significant consequences. His government’s objections to Saudi Arabia’s initial tyranny over women’s rights in that country caused a lot of pushback and it was very disappointing that other countries did not support Canada’s position (which, as we know, was the proper one).

We cannot be complacent about status quos in “democratic countries” because at any moment those principles can be overturned by an autocratic leader. Just look at Hungary as a terrible example of what can go wrong.

Be alert.