2008 IS A GOOD YEAR
The real surge, not the one in Iraq, for human rights came at the end of the last century. Communism disappeared without bullets flying. Southern Africans had majority rule. Military dictators had mostly disappeared in Latin America. Central America finally cooled down after 300,000 deaths to innocent people. Many prisoners went from jail to executive power. Names like Biko, Aquino, Romero, were remembered with honor by their people, if not their governments. Human rights were on the table of all governments as well as the editorial pages and news columns of newspapers. People power against governments was winning, as Molly Maguire said to her sons, “What tyrant shall we tumble?”
Then came Bush and Cheney. The nightmare of torture became a reality in American held jails. People are held for long periods without lawyers. Power and meanness became the foreign policy of the USA. Our 9/11 foreign policy as a nation became a fear driven madness rather than a search for our true enemies. American TV and newspapers followed suit. Both became traitors to the American tradition. Few articles on human rights; fewer human rights people on television. The glove of the media fitted the bloody outreach of the government. Human rights were replaced by a determined democracy with a gun barrel. The price of life went down. Machinery of death and torture again made its inquisitional presence, like a weed blooming in the cement.
Then ’08 came. Will 2009 arrive with new hope? The debate for the future of human rights might allow American policy makers to get back to the agenda of life rather than death. People view both candidates with some respect. Surprises again occur. Obama criticizes the Supreme Court for not killing rapists who have not killed. He touches the machinery of death. McCain touches the machinery of torture with strange votes. A chill goes thru the human rights community. Neither ‘straight talk’ candidate speaks of the plight of the Palestinians, 60 years in the dessert. Peace loving Israelis must wonder about both.
The gigantic moment of these two candidates has arrived; one tortured in prison and the other from the long night of slavery/Jim Crow might pass on important and critical issues. Both men understand the bestiality of the human conflicts like Darfur, Zimbabwe, Burma and the Congo. They know many people here and abroad live on less than a dollar a day. Both candidates might get by without clarity of purpose for our foreign policy. That possibility leaves behind many people and much human suffering.
The rare and failed moment that Jefferson and Adams had re slavery is now here again; but this time it is the debate of torture and death. History will not forgive the candidates or the press if this moment is passed without a clarion call to human rights. No torture. Respect all people starts with this new administration or we will fail the world once again with a confused foreign policy. Hatred of our enemies and love of our pals is not a foreign policy this time around. New realities have come; China, one fifth of the world’s people, wants in the game of the big boys as do India and Iran and Venezuela.
The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 2008. Few Americans know it. Fewer ever read it. Fewer know it was passed by the human rights champion Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the land. Both candidates ought to pledge to put the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into American passports so that the world knows we are seriously returning to an American agenda that benefits not just Americans, but the whole world. The gain of respect by respecting a 60-year-old document would honor the founding First Lady as well as pledge to the world that we seek peace and resolution before war.
When we ask our soldiers to go to battle to fight our real enemies, the next president must arm our soldiers with truth and a clear mission. Nothing less. Congressional approval needs to be sought each time, just like it is written in the Constitution.
While the election process rolls on, the candidates need to point to documents, agreed up ones. Real American power and confidence are contained in them. Ask all Americans to read the Bill of Rights and the constitution before voting. Forget the Lincoln bedroom for the rich; allow a lottery for all Americans to pick the lucky ones to sleep there. The person without a title in the USA is the president…that is why that person is called “Mr. President”. Render to all the people their White House, their documents, and their rights. Prove it by printing the UDHR in our passports. Take the chill out of the air. Scare the torturer out of the chamber. Retire the executioner.
An appointment of hope for human rights (finally) by the United Nations: Navi Pillay, a great judge, great jurist and a human with deep humanity might be appointed Asst Secy for Human Rights. Like the Irish say, may the devil bite the toes of all her foes (USA, China), so that she will know them by their limping.
Is a new year dawning?
--Jack
Then came Bush and Cheney. The nightmare of torture became a reality in American held jails. People are held for long periods without lawyers. Power and meanness became the foreign policy of the USA. Our 9/11 foreign policy as a nation became a fear driven madness rather than a search for our true enemies. American TV and newspapers followed suit. Both became traitors to the American tradition. Few articles on human rights; fewer human rights people on television. The glove of the media fitted the bloody outreach of the government. Human rights were replaced by a determined democracy with a gun barrel. The price of life went down. Machinery of death and torture again made its inquisitional presence, like a weed blooming in the cement.
Then ’08 came. Will 2009 arrive with new hope? The debate for the future of human rights might allow American policy makers to get back to the agenda of life rather than death. People view both candidates with some respect. Surprises again occur. Obama criticizes the Supreme Court for not killing rapists who have not killed. He touches the machinery of death. McCain touches the machinery of torture with strange votes. A chill goes thru the human rights community. Neither ‘straight talk’ candidate speaks of the plight of the Palestinians, 60 years in the dessert. Peace loving Israelis must wonder about both.
The gigantic moment of these two candidates has arrived; one tortured in prison and the other from the long night of slavery/Jim Crow might pass on important and critical issues. Both men understand the bestiality of the human conflicts like Darfur, Zimbabwe, Burma and the Congo. They know many people here and abroad live on less than a dollar a day. Both candidates might get by without clarity of purpose for our foreign policy. That possibility leaves behind many people and much human suffering.
The rare and failed moment that Jefferson and Adams had re slavery is now here again; but this time it is the debate of torture and death. History will not forgive the candidates or the press if this moment is passed without a clarion call to human rights. No torture. Respect all people starts with this new administration or we will fail the world once again with a confused foreign policy. Hatred of our enemies and love of our pals is not a foreign policy this time around. New realities have come; China, one fifth of the world’s people, wants in the game of the big boys as do India and Iran and Venezuela.
The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 2008. Few Americans know it. Fewer ever read it. Fewer know it was passed by the human rights champion Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the land. Both candidates ought to pledge to put the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into American passports so that the world knows we are seriously returning to an American agenda that benefits not just Americans, but the whole world. The gain of respect by respecting a 60-year-old document would honor the founding First Lady as well as pledge to the world that we seek peace and resolution before war.
When we ask our soldiers to go to battle to fight our real enemies, the next president must arm our soldiers with truth and a clear mission. Nothing less. Congressional approval needs to be sought each time, just like it is written in the Constitution.
While the election process rolls on, the candidates need to point to documents, agreed up ones. Real American power and confidence are contained in them. Ask all Americans to read the Bill of Rights and the constitution before voting. Forget the Lincoln bedroom for the rich; allow a lottery for all Americans to pick the lucky ones to sleep there. The person without a title in the USA is the president…that is why that person is called “Mr. President”. Render to all the people their White House, their documents, and their rights. Prove it by printing the UDHR in our passports. Take the chill out of the air. Scare the torturer out of the chamber. Retire the executioner.
An appointment of hope for human rights (finally) by the United Nations: Navi Pillay, a great judge, great jurist and a human with deep humanity might be appointed Asst Secy for Human Rights. Like the Irish say, may the devil bite the toes of all her foes (USA, China), so that she will know them by their limping.
Is a new year dawning?
--Jack