A Difference of One

Since my friend, Audrius Kazenas, was picked up by ICE and began his torturous journey of relentless prosecution and indefinite detention I have been told over and over again that one person can’t make a difference, that one person can not have an effect against the might of the United States Government. I didn’t believe it when I was first told that and I don’t believe it now. For those of you who really believe that one person can not make a difference I would like to bring your attention to one fruit vendor in Tunisia who had had enough of the abuse and corruption of government and was willing to put everything on the line to expose it. That one man, through his desperate final communication of helplessness and humanity, has toppled two Middle East dictatorships and who knows how many more will follow. When that one man protested what he had been subjected to he lit the fuse on a massive powder keg and now there is no turning back. One man . . . it just took one man.

When we affirm that one person can make a difference, what do we picture? Isn’t it true we are picturing a positive difference? That’s what I look at, but recently I’ve become aware of the fact that this view is out of balance. Yes, on person can make a huge difference, for good, but also for bad. Was the upheaval in the Middle East caused by a fruit vendor, or was it caused by a slap from a corrupt official? By downplaying our own inability to make a difference in this world we run the risk of underestimating the damage that one corrupt or criminally minded person can do to the well being of a whole community. We see actions that are out of line by someone in law enforcement and we excuse it. We see someone committing what seem to be minor crimes against others and we choose to let it go because . . . Well, it’s only minor, not worth our time.

That slap to that fruit vendor was pretty minor too – look what it has caused. We give law enforcement a pass because we need them and we know they have a tough job. We look the other way at petty crime because we know we are hardly perfect ourselves, but one act of corruption seldom stands alone and do we really need; are we really protected by a law enforcement agent who doesn’t follow the law? Crimes are not committed in a vacuum and there is a big difference between ordinary human failings and criminal activity. We look away at our own risk for there is no way to know when someone committing criminal acts will become embolden by success and escalate his/her actions with more damaging results.

One person can and does make a difference, for good or bad. We all count, we all matter. Isn’t that a natural extension from the concept of human rights, the idea that each person, by the simple fact of being born human, has certain inalienable rights? With rights go responsibilities, so if we are each born with human rights, does it not then follow that we are born with human responsibilities as well, that we not only can, but should make a difference? Seems to me that is the best reason to be my brother’s keeper there is.