Tag: freedom

To make their voices heard

Posted on by kathiemm
Eleanor Roosevelt at UN
Eleanor Roosevelt at U.N. Image in public domain.

December 10 is International Human Rights Day.

According to the United Nations: “This year, the spotlight is on the rights of all people — women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized — to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making.”

The right to express one’s opinion and have it heard is among the rights affirmed on June 18, 1948, by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, in the International Declaration of Human Rights.

The Preamble begins:

“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, and

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights resulted before and during the second World War, in barbarous acts which outraged the conscience of mankind and made it apparent that the fundamental freedoms were one of the supreme issues of the conflict, and

Whereas it is essential, if mankind is not to be compelled as a last resort to rebel against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by a regime of law….”

What do you think of these principles? Do you agree that human beings have inherent rights and that violation of those rights can lead to war?

Among the universal and inherent human rights listed in the Declaration are:

  • No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
  • Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
  • Everyone has the right to freedom of assembly and association.

Do you exercise those rights?  Would you fight to defend them? Would you follow the difficult and high road of fighting for them non-violently?

Would you deny those rights to the thousands of people around the world who are fighting for them?

View this brief video from Human Rights Day 2011 and then ask yourself:  What have you done of a peaceful nature to pursue your own rights or the rights of others?

Please share your story.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

A new birth of freedom

Posted on by kathiemm

“[W]e here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, PA, November 19, 1863)

Abraham Lincoln, 1858
Abraham Lincoln, 1858. Image in public domain.

As we celebrate Lincoln’s birthday on Sunday, let’s reflect on  freedoms that still demand pursuit. There are many:

  • Freedom from racism, sexism, prejudice, and discrimination
  • Freedom from tyranny and injustice
  • Freedom to have control and choice in regard to one’s body, one’s mind, one’s labor
  • Freedom to live by the ethic of reciprocity without being punished for doing so.

Right now, important efforts to obtain freedom and democracy are underway in many parts of the world, and often without the support of our own democracy in the U.S.

Our own democracy is in need of support as well, as it is often undermined by our own government and citizens in the name of national security.

The United States does not have a good record regarding support for democratic movements elsewhere in the world. As a Muslim friend of mine said, the election of Barack Obama was in many ways revolutionary—an effort to take back the power of the people, by the people, and for the people from the ruling military/industrial/media complex.

The pro-democracy and Occupy movements throughout the world offer an opportunity for the President and the American people to put our money, support, and understanding where its professed values lie—to advance freedom, democracy, and peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Do you know your rights?

Posted on by kathiemm

December 10 is Human Rights Day, a global day of observance, on which countries around the world honor the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in the wake of World War II.


Before you watch this video, consider the statements below. Check off the statements you think are included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which the United States is a signatory.

1. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

2. Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

3. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

4. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

5. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.

6. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

7. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

8. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.

9. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

10. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

To determine the level of your knowledge concerning universal human rights, view the video at the beginning of this post, or read the Declaration itself.

Give yourself one point for each item that you correctly identified as being included in the UDHR and subtract one point for each item that you incorrectly included in the list.

Please let us know how you did.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Happy birthday, Nelson Mandela

Posted on by kathiemm

The world is honored and made a better place by your presence among us and by the lessons and leadership you have provided throughout a life of courage and character.

Nelson Mandela
Image in public domain

I am grateful that despite all the horrors of apartheid, all the violence that was done, your life was preserved because that life has been a gift to all life on earth.

You are the role model most needed in a world where too many people rush to destroy anyone they have decided to call an enemy. You are a mensch.

Here, in the 100thpost of this blog, I want to share with all of our readers, some of your enduring words of truth, justice, wisdom, and empathy:

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. ”

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. ”

“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. ”

Dear Readers, if you want to see a wonderful movie that says a lot about the kind of man Nelson Mandela is, see the film Invictus and enjoy this fine poem by William Ernest Henley:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

(Poem in public domain)

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