Each year, Dec. 10 is the day the United Nations has annually set aside as Human Rights Day in order to commemorate and recognize various human rights related activities and achievements from around the world, with the awarding of the Noble Peace Prizes being one such example. On this year the official Human Rights Day theme is Human Rights: 365. This is because there is never a moment, a day, or a time when we should not be concerned with the state of affairs and the overall condition of our fellow Man. In addition to poverty stricken communities, world health, and universal rights under common law, the UN has dedicated itself to eradicating the menace of slavery in the form of trafficking from the world, and they are to be commended for these ongoing efforts. America can learn from this year's human rights day and advance the cause of human rights 365 as well.
Oddly enough, we have come to one of those rare crossroads of history that is curious in nature and eerily similar to the past. It's ironic that as America is experiencing growing societal unrest, the world celebrates human rights. Today, many in our nation are disturbed and fearful while others wonder are we witnessing the death of democracy? Most are taking a little look towards heaven and praying for a just and moral change.
Today, I weep for my nation, and in my heart I cry a tear for America. I know that it's not because of our freedoms, they endure. I know it's not because of our defining principles, for they shall stand the test of time. I know it's not because of our noble service people, we feel their selfless sacrifice and see their tears of the sun. It's not because of our ability, for I believe America can achieve what it deems necessary to accomplish. I weep because of our buried dreams; I weep because of our forlorn and our forgotten hopes; I cry because of broken happiness; I shed tears because I lament in America's pain. How did we get here as a nation? How did we transverse to such a low and dangerous path?
Our nation is divided amongst one another. We do not see the broken aspirations of the young, we don't seek out the experience and knowledge of the old. We don't lace up the boot straps and walk a mile in anothers' shoes. We don't yet know we must ultimately choose to do what is right for the nation, above what's convenient and beneficial for ourselves. We must leave the scars, wounds, and sins of our past buried, where they should remain forever unearthed. We should guard against our negative stigmas, attitude polarizations and confirmation biases of one another. We should try to truly make human rights, 365.
Let us then begin. We begin this noble mission when we see that there are too many walls of inadequacy, too many walls of inaccessibility, too many walls of indecency, too many walls of inequity, and too many walls of injustice. We recently remembered Ronald Regan at the Brandenburg Gate on 30 years ago telling then Soviet Premier Mikal Gorbachev to open up the gate; to tear down the wall. In order for us to advance as a nation, we must open up the doors, bring down the barriers and tear down the walls that would divide and destroy us, because a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Ultimately, to do this we must promote full justice. Justice, because the opening lines of the preamble still says, "We the people of the United States," in order to form a more perfect union must first have justice. Justice, because the closing lines of the pledge of allegiance still reads that we should be one nation, many believe under God, with liberty and justice not just for the one, but liberty and justice for us all. Justice, because the Declaration of Independence says we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, and amongst these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Justice, because it's proclaimed in the book of Amos in the Old Testament that justice rolls down like mighty waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.These are America's true principles, meanings, and creeds, and in order for human rights to be 365, we must never forsake them.
In conclusion, human rights is exhibited by the recent rallying cry of untold scores of Americans from coast to coast when they say Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter. When they reach for the sky in a symbolic gesture of hands up don't shoot, when they wear shirts that say I can't breath, when they block roadways and stage die-ins and teach-ins, they are not meaning to be rebel rousers or public vagrants and vagabonds; we must listen to their mournful dirges, we should not fail to hear their sorrowful cries. They are asking are we not a better nation than this? They are asking is not the application of our laws supposed to be impartial, fair and universal? They see that because of a system based on retributive justice, our society is out of equilibrium, and our laws seem to work for the few, not the many, and they demand, for the sake of the soul of our nation to balance the great scales of justice through being good to one another, and through restorative justice so that ex- offenders may atone, may make amends, so that others may feel peace and comfort, and all can be active participants in the American Dream.
So in order to build a better tomorrow, give hope a chance today, human rights day.
At his lowest hour it was Nixon that noted that after the darkness there must always come light. He would go on to say in his farewell to the nation, that true greatness comes when you are tested, when you take some knocks and disappointments, that only until you have been in the lowest of all valleys can you ever know how "magnificent it is" on top of the highest mountain. We then, cannot wade in the valley of darkness and desolation. We should not wallow in the low valley of despair. We as a nation must choose to take a new path, that as those like Rev. William Barber suggest can move us towards higher ground. Upon that great pinnacle moment when we truly are the most perfect of unions, have achieved liberty and union, "one inseparable", and are firmly planted on higher ground, is when we will say, this is the day when we have all seen justice. We have kept human rights, 365. What a day for jubilee. What a day to rejoice.
Eric Atkins
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What is causing the societal unrest in America today? Is it because the “poor” do not have enough TV’s or cell phones? Is it because the bulk of our [non tax paying] society does not get to claim more of the pay and services of others?
Maybe they think they should just be handed a job because of race, sex, or sexual orientation. I believe those are generally the factors people claim to be discriminated by.
Personally, I think the provider class in America should be protesting against slavery. They are having their services and dollars taken at gunpoint. For what reason? Only to get some politician re-elected.
Don’t even get me started on the U.N.
Oops, too late. It seems to me, an outsider, that the people running the U.N. would not even have a job if we would just kick them out of the U.S. and stop paying for the organization. Yet, we (America) are the biggest violators of everything the U.N. holds dear. They want a Human Rights day? Fine. Go have one in Iran. Or Russia. Or China. Or Mexico. Or, most places in the Middle East, South America, or Asia.
Better yet, send the people that think our human rights are bad to any of those places. And, please take the idiots that keep funding the U.N. with them. Then, see how much better America becomes.
Robert Harvey
Chattanooga