It is what it is…

By Marc Chayer
Throughout history we have often been reminded what a single person can do to change the sequence of events or even the outcome of a crisis.
People such as Abraham Lincoln who ended slavery in the United States, Martin Luther King whose “I have a dream” speech put race relations in a context everyone could relate to, and in Canada our own Lester Pearson who as Prime Minister did such things as introduce universal health care, commissioned a new flag, and created the Canada Pension Plan all of which pale when one also adds the fact the he created the entire idea of “Peacekeeping” when he dispatched Canadian Troops to form a line between combatants during the Suez Canal Crisis.
Time and time again, we have seen a single individual change the outcome of a momentous event that seemed, until they got involved, unsolvable.
This past week, heated debates worldwide on the Syrian Refugee Crisis were suddenly silenced by a three-year-old boy. World leaders hardened to years of conflict were stopped dead in their tracks as a single photo of the lifeless form of a small child laying on a faraway beach circulated the civilized world.
National boundaries, political positions, and religious beliefs of every stripe were suddenly moulded into one thought of humanity… or the lack thereof.
We saw in various media forms, a photo not of what we think of when one says the word refugee, but rather a little boy who was clean, wore little shoes and socks, and who was well-dressed. Our thoughts went to what his day may have started like with a doting mother making sure her child looked his best as they fled the horrors of war.
This little child, whose biggest concern that day may have been remembering to bring that special stuffed animal brought the world powers to a standstill as anyone who saw the photo started to take inventory of what we have done to protect him and those like him.
We were shamed! We were shamed as a race, as a nation, and as humanity.
Alan Kurdi, three years old, became in death what many of us hope to aspire to in life. He became someone who reminded us of what we are all supposed to be about. The simple silence of the photo of this child screamed recriminations in our minds as we all looked to see who could have been responsible for such a tragedy all the while knowing that we all had a part in this.
As a people, as the human race, we moved away from this photo to cast the glare upon leaders and politicians. We demanded an end to this with the hope of saving the next child, saving the next family to rinse away our guilt.
In Canada, as I have mentioned before, we seem to have let ourselves become hardened to the world in which we live. Once we were a nation looked upon as a leader in the development of peace and a haven for human rights. We, as a people, were safe to travel just about anywhere because we were Canadians.
We are fortunate to live in this country. We have peace and security for all people. We have within our populace a desire to look after those who need protection but, yet, as of late we have allowed ourselves to become this warring tribe not even really sure of what we are fighting against.
For what it’s worth, I think it’s time for us to get back to being the nation that founded the notion of peacekeeping. What made it work was the fact that it was symbolic of what we truly believe in. We have within the boundaries of this country enough for those who wish to seek a better life. We have the resources and the people to lend a hand to those who would face peril and death to come here.
We allowed the Vietnamese “boat people” to come and we were rewarded with the most successful immigrant group to ever come to Canada.
Last week we were forced to look within ourselves and what we have become, and the picture was disturbing. Canada, for all its wealth, most definitely had room for a three-year-old boy, his five-year-old brother, and his mother who was found drowned 150 miles away from her little boys.
It is what it is…