Thursday, July 10, 2008

No Right to Exercise Rights

Have you ever encounter having certain rights, yet being unable to exercise them? I think most of us have.

Take the example of a pedestrian crossing a traffic light. The traffic lights just turned green, but the pedestrian is unable to cross the road because a slow heavy vehicle is making its U-turn, so the pedestrian has to wait until the driver completes his turning, by which time the traffic lights may already be blinking or turning red. While the pedestrian has the right of way to cross the road, he has to wait in order to preserve his own life.

Take another example of feedback by citizens. As citizens, we often voice our concerns over certain issues, but the law on these issues often still gets passed against our wishes, simply because while we have rights to feedback, we do not have rights to make political decisions.

What about at our workplace? As workers, we have the right to reject our bosses' instructions, but we risk losing our jobs as a result.

All these add up to one point. We must all know whether it is right or wise to exercise one's rights in different situations. Making decisions about exercising rights can sometimes be an advantage and at other times disadvantage. Giving away our rights sometimes help resolve entanglement, and if not exercising our rights makes a vast difference between building or breaking important relationships, let us all learn to make the right decisions.

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