Wednesday December 10 is Human Rights Day, a commemoration day for the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The theme this year is Human Rights 365—that is, a reminder that every day should be a human rights day.
Brothers and sisters, we have a long way to go.
- Racism violates human rights.
- Slavery violates human rights.
- Torture violates human rights.
- Murder violates human rights.
- Prolonged solitary confinement violates human rights.
- Even severe poverty is a human rights violation.
Racism, slavery, torture, murder, prolonged solitary confinement, and severe poverty are not things people choose or desire. Nor, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, do people deserve such abominations, even if those people are different, annoying, foreign, other, scary.
The US government is fond of pointing the finger at human rights violations in selected other nations (not, generally, their allies), but such finger pointing is just another example of “Do as I say, not as I do.” All those human rights violations take place in the US today, every day, and all too many people are quick to find “justifications” concerning why racism , slavery, torture , murder, etc., are not human rights violations if done in or by the United States.
On Human Rights Day, 365 days a year, try to listen to a different drummer. Fight racism, fight slavery, fight torture. Raise your voice against murder, solitary confinement, poverty, forced feeding, unequal opportunity, and all the social injustices that infect our society and damage us all. Make the world a better place. Right here at home. Do what you can. 365.