wondering what to do with all that privilege and surplus good luck? try #write4rights 2020

Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and I feel (to paraphrase my favourite baseball player) like the luckiest person on the face of the earth.*

I'm healthy, my partner is healthy, and no one in our extended families has gotten covid.

Thanks to my union, and to my partner's very decent employer, we have a comfortable income, and we didn't lose any income during the pandemic.

I have a safe, comfortable, spacious place to ride out the lockdown and the pandemic in general, with plenty of indoor interests to keep me busy. 

I live in an area with very low covid incidence, where it's easy to enjoy the outdoors while maintaining social distancing.

And that's just my covid-related good fortune. In general my privilege is vast. My young life had many challenges, and perhaps my future holds more (who knows), but in the present I am incredibly fortunate. 

I hope many of you reading this also enjoy lives of privilege, and that you have strong support for the areas of your life where you don't.

The thing about privilege is you don't choose it. You can't lose it. And even if you did, what good would that do? 

The thing about privilege is recognizing it.

The thing about privilege is what you do with it.

* * * *

This month, I encourage you to use some of your privilege to advocate for people who have none, by participating in Write for Rights. 

Write for Rights is Amnesty International's largest annual event. It's easy to participate in and it gets results. 

I've written a lot about the reasons to participate in Write For Rights: the positive and feel-good reasons, and the deadly serious reasons. Some examples are here and here.

These are the 10 cases -- the 14 people -- that Amnesty Canada has chosen to highlight this year. You can read about each one here.



The great thing about Write for Rights is you can participate in a way that works for you.

You can join a virtual event.

You can write on your own, as I do.

You can write one letter.

You can write 10 letters.

You can write by email. 

You can type, print, and send a paper letter. 

It's not difficult to do. 

It makes a difference.

Write for Rights in Canada.

Write for Rights in the US.

Write for Rights anywhere. 


* Many years ago, I wrote "on luck," one of wmtc's greatest hits. This is one of the posts that lost dozens of comments. But it's still a good post.

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