Just One

People often believe they are incapable of change or of making a difference in the world around them. It seems that as children and young adults, we often possess a profound desire and indeed a need to better our world and we believe very deeply in our ability to do this. Somewhere, during the course of our lives, we become disillusioned, distracted, caught up in the minutia of the every day. We lose this hope, this drive to leave a positive mark on the world, or we lose the ability to see ourselves and our actions, however small, as a force for good.

I want, today, to share with you two stories of people that I know who did this despite being "just one" person.

Last weekend, my friend Peter Leibovitch passed away. Peter was a labour leader, an agent of social change and an advocate for justice for people without a voice. Most importantly, he was a father to Jacob, Joe, Steve, Michael, Sam and Danielle. Though I came to know Peter as a child, it has been sometime since I last saw him. I remember him very fondly and I remember very vividly Peter being at my parents’ home the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The house was filled to the brim with people for a family gathering; CNN was on, broadcasting Mandela’s release. Peter came in to the kitchen, took my mother by the hand and said “you HAVE to come and see this.” I remember this because his passion for this monumental event and what it represented for Mandela and the people of South Africa was so overwhelming it was contagious – it filled the room and the people in it.

Peter was truly a man of great integrity and courage. He understood that when one of us suffers, we all suffer; and that when you empower people, you empower society as a whole.

He also understood that the desire to alleviate the suffering of others and to achieve justice transcends religion, race, gender or any other manner in which we “classify” people. There are many people in this world that would do well to take a page from Peter’s book in this regard.

Nearly three weeks ago now, my friend and neighbour at the cottage Zane Brown passed away after a very difficult battle with brain cancer. Zane embraced this diagnosis with courage, grace, dignity and humour. He remained positive and thankful for the love he had been able to share and the love that had been given to him during his too brief stay on this earth. His attitude, dignity and courage will forever remain an example to me in my daily life.

Zane was an accomplished man, having served the federal government for 37 years. He volunteered his time with the Hamilton Literacy Council to empower people in his community by giving them the gift of literacy. He gave his time to community service organizations that supported Hamilton’s most vulnerable residents. Above all else, Zane was Irma’s husband for 44 years and Carl, Eric and Kathryn’s Dad.

I first met Zane as a child; he was a friend of our family – most importantly he and his wife Irma were the very best friends of my Aunt Jane and my cousins Patty, Mary, Paula and Danny. Like Peter, Zane was much older than I but someone who left an impression. Zane and Peter were both people I knew my Mother liked and respected very much, which even as a child told me something, as she was(and is) not easily impressed.

Zane was an exceptionally bright man, to be sure -a man capable of intelligent conversation on an inordinate number of subjects. Despite this, Zane had no airs, no conceit and no arrogance. He was a warm, friendly, compassionate man who was fully engaged when he spoke to you – he had time for everyone. I recall someone sharing a story with me several years ago about how loved and respected the children he volunteered to teach golf to.

In my opinion, Zane’s character is his legacy.

This week, as I was thinking about these two men, their lives and the impression they made on mine, I also had the occasion to read Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, as part of a school requirement. As he responds to his detractors from jail, King says “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects us all directly.” I believe this is a sentiment both Zane and Peter understood. Moreover –they understood that their actions, however great or small, had the capacity to change their world. They knew that the time "just one" person spent serving others was indeed time well spent.

What does this mean to you? Well, tomorrow is Social Good Day. This initiative, conceived by Mashable and (RED) – is aimed at using social media to engender social change and encourage solutions to the pressing issues facing our world. The goal is to initiate conversations and bring communities together to generate ideas; harnessing the power of social media for social good. Tomorrow hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of “just one” will contribute to moving the world forward.

We are inextricably linked to one another in this vast world, and we have a duty to help the most vulnerable among us. Tomorrow, in honour of Peter and Zane’s legacy, I’m going to dedicate my thoughts to how I believe we can better the world, together. In the days after tomorrow, I’m going to remember that my actions (and your actions) can indeed be a force for change in the world and give my best to live so that my character is my legacy.

I hope tomorrow you can join me in doing the same in honour of someone you admire and respect – ideas can change the world; “just one” person is capable of doing the same.