FREEDOM

This weekend I lost my keys, I was beyond annoyed to say the least. Each time (and this is the second time in the 7 months I’ve lived at my condo) you lose your keys it cost a few hundred to replace. $150 for a supposedly expensive Fob that is made and assembled in MEXICO... Canceling the lost Fob and replacing the lock (which really isn’t necessary since you can’t get on my floor anyway, but of course this is needed to calm the nerves of certain family members). Naturally my first reaction was “why do I have such bad luck”.

Then it hit me

It is easy to ignore, subconsciously block out or even forget what is going on in our world today. When living in North America, it sometimes feels as though this IS the world, rather than just a very privileged continent. We are so far away, so detached, that even if we are not originally from North America, we forget.

Forget that there are children, yes children, who are literally dying for a glimpse of the freedom we take for granted. They are risking their lives, so that they too can create an environment where their country can prosper through their ability to be free.

Free to simply obtain the right of a human being.

Instead every time they try to vocalize these rights, rights that are so natural to us here in North America, they are treated like objects. Beaten to the point where many are slowly dying on the streets in agony and pain. We hear it in the news, hurt for a moment, but soon those mortalities are simply just numbers to us.

Hundreds of deaths the news man will declare – hundreds of people, human beings, many students, young with dreams , hopes and ambition to become someone in their own country. Individuals who truly believe if simply given the opportunity to express themselves they can innovate, become successful, create families and homes, just as we do every day here in North America.

The deaths easily become simply a number to us. We can listen to the news, allow ourselves to become empathetic for a moment, but we are given the opportunity to then turn off our Plasma Screen TVs and step away, forget, and enjoy our extremely privileged lives. Making our small everyday mishaps, like losing keys, into actual issues for ourselves.

We forget that whatever number of physical deaths there are, there a hundreds of more people who were connected to those people who will die as well. Mothers who will bury their child, fathers who have lost the dreams they had for their son/daughter, siblings who’ve lost a companion, all of whom will never be the same again, as a part of them too will die.

Today let’s not forget. Let’s be realistic, because it is true that for us here in North America, no matter how bad an experience is inflicted on us, there REALLY is someone across the ocean that has it worse. We are blessed beyond comprehension. And because of that we need to take a moment, a moment to understand and realize how blessed we are, while acknowledging that those numbers, those deaths, are all self-less human beings, fighting for the right to live.