‘In small places, close to home’
Be thoughtful. That’s Carey Majid’s suggestion on a simple and free change people can adopt to make a difference.
She is the executive director of the province’s Human Rights Commission, an entity dedicated to protecting your human rights as well as everyone else’s.
The commission promotes those rights and helps settle disputes when people think their rights have been violated.
Asked to participate in this A Week of Change series, she offered the above advice, which, if followed, would avoid such violations.
Majid quotes the late Eleanor Roosevelt, humanitarian and U.S. first lady, to illustrate her point: “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.”
“I just really like that line about ‘in small places close to home,’” Majid says of the Roosevelt quote, “because that’s where most of us can have an impact on other people.”
Not being considerate can also have an impact, a negative one that leads to challenges and conflicts of all scopes and sizes.
On a local level, it might lead to a human rights complaint.
“People sometimes don’t think about other people. They might just ignore (differences) unintentionally. That’s kind of where problems sometimes occur,” Majid says.
If we collectively became more thoughtful of others, Majid believes, there’d be greater tolerance and understanding. Obviously we need more of that. “We are all different,” she says. “We have a lot of similarities, but we all have differences that need to be appreciated and respected.”
To become more thoughtful, Majid encourages people to be open to new experiences, to learn new things and to meet new people.
“Travel if you can,” she continues. “Travel in your own city or in your province and kind of read or watch or learn something new every day that might challenge how you view the world.”