Inalienable rights? Ha!

I had an interesting conversation with someone just now that included a brief discussion about 'inalienable rights'. My offering: any right (in this case, the right to safety) is entirely alienable. It's a dangerous to conclude that because the UN says a right is inalienable it actually is. Saying so, don't make it so. Any right can be taken from you in the right set of circumstances and by any person with just the right amount of power and control.

In Trinidad & Tobago, we are currently watching the unfolding of the Sheron's Auto situation. Mr. Sheron is an alleged spousal abuser whose wife posted pictures of some recent 'alleged' abusive event on the man's company's FB page. (Serious points to her to coming all the way out of the closet.) It occurs to me though that there have to have been people who knew this was occurring and yet, she stayed in the spousal home likely thinking she had no recourse. Any inalienable right she might have had to physical and emotional safety was taken from her the minute she ceased to feel that there was anyone anywhere who could or would help her break free.

No right is 'inalienable'. Inalienability is a great concept but we're not there yet. Until we get to a place where anyone who feels at risk of personal or psychological harm can quietly and safely walk away from the dangerous situation, we're just not there yet.

I have similar trouble with the concept of 'fairness'. That's another great idea but we ain't there yet either. 'Fair'? Where does this 'fairness' exist in the natural order of things? Is there 'fairness' in the animal kingdom? Nope. There is eat or be eaten; dine or die. This is no less true among humans. In the US we're still arguing over whether health care is a human right, whether a living wage is a human right, whether access to potable water is a human right and evidence clearly shows that the answers to all these are: maybe, sometimes and it depends.

Inalienable. Cool word, great concept, but no, ain't nothing that you cannot be alienated from if the circumstances are just right. Ask the Native Americans, ask the students in Detroit and the children, prisoners and pregnant women in Flint, ask 12 year old Tamir Rice, 6 year old Jeremy Mardis, Sandra Bland, Janese Talton Jackson, Emmett Till or any one of the thousands of people lynched at the beginning of the century, Troy Davis, Richard Glossip (both executed though the cases against them had largely fallen apart. Thank you, Supreme Court.)

As I said, there are no inalienable rights. Once someone has the power to strip you of your mythical rights, it's all over. It ever was thus, and it appears, it ever will be.