Opinion piece by Annabelle Ghanem, Staff Writer

April 14th, 2020

With every breath, every blink of an eye, the true beauty of our existence flashes before the eyes of whom had sought it nine months prior. An extra key to our survival, so distinctive from the one preceding it, yet equally as essential to the circle our world revolves around. With every movement of the second hand on our watches, 4 new lives are brought to this earth. Two-hundred and forty souls in the span of a minute make their way to our planet, only to find themselves encountering their first test; Are they lucky enough?

Are they lucky enough to be born with a certain skin color? Are they lucky enough to have come out of a body wearing Chanel earrings and Louboutin heels? Are they lucky enough to be born into a loving household, or hold a nationality that protects them? Are they lucky enough to be part of that small percentage of the self-determined “superior race”? Or have they been subjected to a life playing catch with discrimination or dancing with famine? 

Welcome to the 21st century, the era where we still find these forms of unfairness and self-claimed superiority over others so prominently in all sectors of life. With such injustice becoming the daily norm in so many societies, we often forget that a person does not get to choose how he or she appears, or who they are, so what makes an individual worthier of obtaining his set of human rights than another? Why are lucky children worthier of food, water, and shelter than unlucky ones? And just like that, in a sharp turn of events, the coronavirus had arrived with a crystal-clear answer to that formidable question.

Covid-19 has drenched the year 2020 in a worldwide pandemic, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands and victimizing over a million people thus far. Despite the virus being a clear tragedy fallen onto the lap of the entire Earth, it has also served as a reminder of a principal that has been long forgotten and abused by mankind. 

An announcement had surfaced every news platform in the world on March 27th, reporting the news of Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, testing positive for the disease. Two days earlier, Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, also tested positive for the coronavirus. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced that his wife Sophie Trudeau had tested positive for the virus on March 28, along with Prince Albert of Monaco, NBA star Kevin Durant, actor Idris Elba, and many more public figures. 

Simultaneously, the lower class of every nation has been affected tremendously, with the class system endangering their health due to present lack of available commodities or shelters, as well as the global economic pause threatening the obtainment of their already limited supplies.

The virus has jeopardized the life of the poorest man in the world, as well as the richest. The life of a laborer, as well as the life of a prime minister. Therefore, what makes a Prime Minister more deserving of human rights than a laborer? Covid-19 responded to these questions by showing that there is no being worthy of life more than another. The body of whom believes he’s superior can easily contract the virus just as well as the body of whom he considers inferior. With that being said, how can you justify being superior, while you are both evidently made and cut from the same cloth?

Therefore, I invite you all to take this pandemic as a wakeup call. Change will always begin on the individual level, if we choose to seize the opportunity. A dream is all Martin Luther King Jr. had, and he was able to triumph passed the inequalities of his time. Now it’s our turn to vouch for the ones who aren’t able to fight this long-standing battle for human rights. The over 1.3 billion people who suffer day by day simply for failing that first test. We must all do our part in insuring discrimination, inequality and class struggles do not prevail past our time on this Earth, for we all belong to the human race, and should all be given our set of human rights.