Human Values and International Law
I am going to start my presentation with a caveat. While I will endeavor to stick to established facts whenever possible, I caution that my presentation is influenced by own experiences of a person born in the USA and by my own perspective and viewpoint
My presentation of International HR will be broken down in 3 Sections
History of HR
Current View of HR and
The Futures of HR
1st A Quick History of HR (western perspective)
For most of recorded history all power was held by Pharoughs, Kings and Emperors and there was no such things as Individual HR, except to serve the autocrat. In my opinion, I see 3 main events that changed history for HR
The 1st Event was in 1600, and after Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake by the Vatican, for saying, among other things, the earth revolved around the sun. Then a miraculous thing happened, Civilization reached a tipping-point and said Enough! And a schism erupted, where Faith and Theocracy separated from Science and Logic, which functions to this day. Followed was the Age of Reason and Enlightenment of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, while Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Expression became a basic HR, influenced by such philosophers such as John Locke.
The 2ed Big HR Event occurred with Thomas Paine, in the writing the pamphlet ‘Common Sense,’ which called for a new nation to be formed based on the HRs for the Individual. This was an Astounding and Revolutionary idea, resulting in Thomas Jefferson writing The Declaration of Independence in 1776. We all know the words of the 1st paragraph of the Declaration of Independence as it has become part of our ethos, which binds us together, of who we are as individuals, a nation and as citizen of the world. Let’s take a detailed look at that first paragraph of this historical document, which changed the world:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”
Le’s take = a moment to appreciate these words.
Self-evident Rights: There are our rights even before government. According to John Locke ( a favorite philosopher of Jefferson) They are obvious, universal and unquestionable, innately known. Some big assumption.
All men are created equal: This was written by Jefferson a slave owner, and was followed by a US Constitution that only gave white land owning men the vote. But Jefferson gave us the words as an aspirational goal and a process to obtain these goals in a flexible US Constitution, as a work in process which eventually ended slavery, and adopted HR for women, labor and civil rights.
Unalienable Rirhts: These are rights that cannot be taken away, even by law or the government. Governments do not grant these rights, their role is to recognize them and to protect them
That among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: These are broad categories of human rights with wide interpretation. Pursuit of Happyness? Now there is an aspirational promise, which appears in no other international document.
By the consent of the Governed: This principal underpins our democracy. To insure the ‘consent of the governed,’ the Constitution and The Bill of Rights gives us the framework for change, where, ‘We the People” can determine and maintain our self-evident and unalienable Human Rights through Amendments, Checks and Balances of the 3 Branches of government, Periodic elections. Impeachment and Right to Assemble in Protest.
The Declaration of Independence 1st paragraph ends by dramatically saying, “When a government become destructive of these ends, it is THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT. This says, that in the US, it is the obligation of ordinary citizens to be the primary guardians of HR. I will say more about this statement[CB1] in the next section.
So let’s appreciate and not forget this first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence written 250 years ago, which began this great nation on its path to become a beacon of light and hope for the rest of the world. George Washington called this nation, ‘The Great Experiment,’ Where ‘the consent of the governed can live together in a melting pot of different races, nationalities, religions cultures and wealth and live in harmony for the ‘common good’ of all. E Pluribus Unam, Out of many One’ has been our nation’s motto since 1788. We are still seeing if this is possible.
The 3ed big HR historic event, with International and Universal implications, was issued on December 10, 1948 called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations, (led by Elinor Roosevelt). It sets out the basic ‘self-evident’ ‘unalienable rights’ that belongs to every human being, including equality, freedom, justice, and dignity. Building on this, the UN adopted in 1954 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Treaty. This treaty protects HR such as life, liberty, free expression, religious freedom, fair trials, and political participation. Alongside with this treaty is the 1976 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Treaty, focusing on Economic and Social Rights. In 2005 The UN adopted the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect ( called R2P) and formed the International Criminal Court the ICC, which meets in the Hague, and protects populations from genocide, war crimes, Ethnic cleansing and crimes against Humanity. However, under the UN Charter Article 2: countries are protected from interference in their internal affairs and The ICC court decisions are unenforceable without UN Security Council approval, which because of the veto power of major nation, is unlikely,
The main difference between UN HR and US HR is essentially that The US Constitution protects individual HR through placing enforceable limits on the US government, while the UN envisions a broader universal social concept of HRs that all nations should strive to achieve, such as basic pay, health care, child care, senior care, adequate housing, guaranteed retirement benefits, and a minimum standard of living.In the US, these are so far not self-evident human rights, but privileges.
A Quick Worldwide Current View of Human Rights
China’s government has created a fast growing economy that combines the market place and socialism with an autocratic government. For now, individual have basically given up their individual HR rights for the sake of efficiency for the common good. One rule in China is: Don’t complain! It has given them 28,000 miles High speed trains, an electric car like a Tesla at one third the price and it has become the equal economic rival of the US.As long as the economic magic is working, HR struggles, so far seem highly unlikely, but I’m hopeful.
Russia: with Putin has become a Fanciest government that rules by violence and fear. Russia did not sign UN HR declaration. HR struggles there, are not likely without brutal retribution
The European Union, Brittan and Canada PROBLEM: 6 of G7 nations have debt above 100% of GDP, making it difficult affording health care and senior care, while life and health spans are zooming into the 90s and 100s. When France retirement was raised from 62 to 64, it almost cause a government shutdown. GOOD: Parliamentary system
Most of the Islamic World functions as a Theocracy: Saudia Arabia; did not sign the UN Decoration of HR The 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights, states that in all Islamic Nations, HR are subject to Sharia Law: which 1) Rejects freedom to change religion. 2) Enforces freedom of speech restrictions, including blasphemy laws 3) Applies-differences to women HR 4) Defends capital punishment. They seem unable to reach a ‘Bruno type’ Theocracy tipping point
Africa was covered by Lynda, a couple of weeks ago.
So now, lets look at the current HR situation in the USA, There appears to be flaws in the United States Constitution that has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to grant the President, ‘immunity’ and ‘implied powers,’ such as’ ‘executive orders,’ and extraordinary military powers as ‘Commander-and-Chief.’ This has given the President the power to issue military strikes and over 250 executive orders which have the binding force of law and ‘do not’ need the approval of the United States Congress. At any time Congress could use it powers of oversight and issue legislation and laws to limit these Imperial Presidential powers, but it has so far declined to act.
Of the 27 grievances that the Deceleration of Independence declared against King George, I believe 10 of these HR violations are now being violated by the current administration. Although I consider this administrations attacks on journalists, legal immigrants, free speech the independence of the Dep of Justice and other issues important, For the sake of brevity, I will concentrate on just one area: the Individual Rights of those designed to protect civilians from Federal Military Power. Those protections include The 1st Amendment: Freedom of Speech, and the Right to Assemble and Protest. The 2ed Amendment: The right to carry arms and form a militia. The Third Amendment prevents soldiers from occupying private homes, while the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments guarantee individuals privacy, due process, civilian jury trial and ensuring that civilians cannot be searched, detained, or punished by the military, without lawful courts.
Congress in the past, has reinforced the Constitutional protections against the military, through the Posse Act of 1878, designated to keep soldiers out of civilian policing. The Supreme Court has upheld these limits in Youngstown v. Sawyer (1952). However, it should be noted that the President can invoke the Insurrection Act, Section 253, which can nullify all these Constructional and legal protections.
There is a is a critical U.S. federal law, 42 U.S.Code 1983 allowing individuals to sue state and local government officials or entities for violating their constitutional or federal rights, but so far, not Federal officials. While the judicial system and the Supreme Court argue what is Constructional or lawful, it appears that the majority of Americans, (particularly since the Minneapolis shootings), appear to be more concerned about, what is right, Self-evident and Unalienable. It takes time for the judicial system to clarify laws OR for Congress to pass new laws and there can be a lot of damage done to our democracy and our HR in-between elections. In the meantime, “What can each of us do to insure that the ‘consent of the governed’ and our individual self-evident and unalienable rights are followed?
Some have suggested, we take to the streets in protest? This responsibility cannot be taken lightly. Let me tell you my own story of protesting, that puts this into perspective. In 1968 the Viet Nam War divided the nation. I was against the war, but for the US troops to come home. The 1968 Democratic Convention was held in Chicago and I attended a peaceful anti-war protest of about 1000 people in Grant Park, when someone took down the American flag from a flagpole. The police came in swinging clubs. Us men instinctively formed a line, and hooked arms, to let the women and children escape. I was hit on the head and seriously injured.
That night, the television coverage switched back and forth between the convention floor, where Humphrey was being nominated, and TV coverage of a police riot that was occurring in front of Conrad Hilton Hotel on Michigan Ave. Demonstrators shouting, “The whole world is watching,” were being clubbed and pulled into patty wagons. Across the street from the Hilton, in my bloodied head bandana, I encountered a line National Guard troops with rifles, fixed bayonet and in gas masks. Between the blinding flood lights and the remnants of tear gas, the troops only appeared as surreal silhouette, when one of the silhouettes shouts, Birkelbach. It was my friend Steve Elkins, called up by the National Guard, who sits a couple of desks away from me. I asked,”How you doing?” He said, ‘We’re scared.” I said, “Who am I fighting. I think I’m going home.” I’ll never forget what he then said, “I wish I could.”
On a Micro scale, this is just two friends talking. But on a Macro scale, it was the artificial axiom of ‘Us vs Them that put us two friends in this situation and in this particular case, it was Us vs Us. At any moment someone could have tried to take a rifle away from one of the National Guard troops and my friend could have been ordered to shoot me. I tell this story, because hitting the streets in protest sounds like an easy solution, but as a practical matter it can be complicated, dangerous and is unfortunately a last resort. However, We the People, will only be the home of the Free, if we remain the home of the Brave.
It was TV cameras that told the truth In 1965 in Selma Alabama, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic convention. Now in Minneapolis, and it’s cellphone videos telling the truth. To quote from a recent Feb 12th NYT editorial board article, “The current crisis is’nt just a test of the 3 branches balance of power, it’s a test of the Bill Of Rights. When the illegality stems from the government itself, the damage is even worse. It sets us on a dangerous course in which tactics now used against a few, may ultimately be wielded against the many.” End quote. Unfortunately it reminds me of the poem “and then they came for me.” stated at the end of the WSHINGTON DC Holocaust Memorial
The Futures for Human Rights
I reject the future views of dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Orwell feared pain, censorship and Big Brother totalitarianism, while Huxley feared control through pleasure drugs and genetic embryo engineering of the classes. I also reject the future outcome forecast in the 2013 movie Elysium, where the very wealthy live on luxury space station, while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth of poverty, rising seas and pollution.
When I asked AI about the future of HR she said, “Lower your shields. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.” That of course, comes from the cyborg’s message to humanity in Startrek. I am also reminded of Asimov’s Robot and Foundation Series, where civilization, in order to protects itself from AI, returns to analog. I am concerned about how New Technology, the Social Network and Artificial Intelligence will affect HR. However, this opens up an entirely new large topic of equity, privacy, surveillance and free speech, which deserves another presentation for another time.
Here, is my opinion about the future. Darwin says it is the survival of the fittest. However, I believe that’s only partly true. I believe humanity has progressed because of our connectedness, which has created civilization out of jungles. I am optimistic about the future. I believe Us vs Them and Us vs Us, has reach its pinochle and the pendulum is ready to swing back toward justice. I expect the America people to say Enough, as it did with slavery, women’s rights, civil rights and gay rights.
I believes in the meaning of Lincoln’s civil war ‘better angels speech’ when he said that the American people, at their core, love this country and that our better angels will once again prevail to bring out the basic virtues of our nation, which are kindness, generosity, respect, empowerment, community, joy, compassion and the common good. I believe in the good hearts of Americans people and the good hearts of people that I have met throughout the world. And that includes the Russian people I have met in St Petersburg and the hundreds of people I have interviewed in Europe, over the last 3 years.
We have been given a wake-up call that should shake us out of our complacency of all we assumed was given and established This should motivate a new generation of heroes and leaders. Sometimes the flame of human rights has to be reignited and the spring has to be recompressed, in order to spring forward again. To do this we have to change our attitudes from fear and anger to hope. It will only happen if we believe it can happen. As Martin Luther King said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
I just hope this happens in my lifetime, but I am confident it will happen. The Great Experiment is actually working. I know that from my grandmother born in Poland, my father born in Germany, from my wife born in Canada, From my daughter-in-law born in China, by my son-in-law born in Ireland, my oldest granddaughter’s husband born in Austria and my second oldest granddaughter’s husband born in India. E Plutus Unarm, Out of many One. For many of our children it is already happening, because for them, more than 50% of our kindergarten students are non-white. In urban areas, they play together as one humanity and not divided by race. Their commonality and connectedness, just hasn’t bubbled-up to the voting surface yet. As MLK said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
In my opinion, the biggest warning has come from James Madison, architect of the Constitution and author of the BIll of Rights, who on June 20, 1888, (the day the Construction was ratified) said “If there e be no virtue and intelligence in the voting public there can be no virtue and wisdom in those that are elected.” As Pogo said in a 1970 cartoon ‘We have seen the enemy and it is us.” It is time to trash what divides us and to emphasis our common good.
We can do better, and we will. We cannot be passive complainers and observers. Ultimately the defense of HR both at home and abroad depends on engaged, informed citizens, who are willing to actively participate in upholding their self-evident and unamiable HR. We stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us. It is just another challenge in a long row of candles, on a journey where Human Rights struggles to achieve the never ending quest for human dignity, which emphases our universal commonality and connectedness. HR are not preserved by parchment, they are preserved by people. It is now our turn to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.
QUESTIONS
- Are Human Rights universal, self-evident and unalienable, or do they depend on culture and national values? Are rights discovered like gravity or are they invented like traffic laws. Are their limits, such as hate speech, privacy, blasphemy, journalistic investigative reporting of government secrets?
- How far can international laws go in interfering with a country internal affairs, to stop Human Rights abuses? Is sovereignty no longer absolute? What rights are universal?
- What role do ordinary US citizens have in protecting their Human Rights in the US? Can they make a difference?
- What obligation do US ordinary citizens have in in protecting Human Rights globally? Does Manifest Destiny* still apply?
- What do you think the future of Human Rights will be like in the US?
*Manifest Destiny supporters believed in the superiority of American culture and government, viewing expansion as a God-given right to bring liberty to the entire world
Human Values and International Law
I am going to start my presentation with a caveat. While I will endeavor to stick to established facts whenever possible, I caution that my presentation is influenced by own experiences of a person born in the USA and by my own perspective and viewpoint
My presentation of International HR will be broken down in 3 Sections
History of HR
Current View of HR and
The Futures of HR
1st A Quick History of HR (western perspective)
For most of recorded history all power was held by Pharoughs, Kings and Emperors and there was no such things as Individual HR, except to serve the autocrat. In my opinion, I see 3 main events that changed history for HR
The 1st Event was in 1600, and after Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake by the Vatican, for saying, among other things, the earth revolved around the sun. Then a miraculous thing happened, Civilization reached a tipping-point and said Enough! And a schism erupted, where Faith and Theocracy separated from Science and Logic, which functions to this day. Followed was the Age of Reason and Enlightenment of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, while Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Expression became a basic HR, influenced by such philosophers such as John Locke.
The 2ed Big HR Event occurred with Thomas Paine, in the writing the pamphlet ‘Common Sense,’ which called for a new nation to be formed based on the HRs for the Individual. This was an Astounding and Revolutionary idea, resulting in Thomas Jefferson writing The Declaration of Independence in 1776. We all know the words of the 1st paragraph of the Declaration of Independence as it has become part of our ethos, which binds us together, of who we are as individuals, a nation and as citizen of the world. Let’s take a detailed look at that first paragraph of this historical document, which changed the world:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”
Le’s take = a moment to appreciate these words.
Self-evident Rights: There are our rights even before government. According to John Locke ( a favorite philosopher of Jefferson) They are obvious, universal and unquestionable, innately known. Some big assumption.
All men are created equal: This was written by Jefferson a slave owner, and was followed by a US Constitution that only gave white land owning men the vote. But Jefferson gave us the words as an aspirational goal and a process to obtain these goals in a flexible US Constitution, as a work in process which eventually ended slavery, and adopted HR for women, labor and civil rights.
Unalienable Rirhts: These are rights that cannot be taken away, even by law or the government. Governments do not grant these rights, their role is to recognize them and to protect them
That among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: These are broad categories of human rights with wide interpretation. Pursuit of Happyness? Now there is an aspirational promise, which appears in no other international document.
By the consent of the Governed: This principal underpins our democracy. To insure the ‘consent of the governed,’ the Constitution and The Bill of Rights gives us the framework for change, where, ‘We the People” can determine and maintain our self-evident and unalienable Human Rights through Amendments, Checks and Balances of the 3 Branches of government, Periodic elections. Impeachment and Right to Assemble in Protest.
The Declaration of Independence 1st paragraph ends by dramatically saying, “When a government become destructive of these ends, it is THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT. This says, that in the US, it is the obligation of ordinary citizens to be the primary guardians of HR. I will say more about this statement[CB1] in the next section.
So let’s appreciate and not forget this first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence written 250 years ago, which began this great nation on its path to become a beacon of light and hope for the rest of the world. George Washington called this nation, ‘The Great Experiment,’ Where ‘the consent of the governed can live together in a melting pot of different races, nationalities, religions cultures and wealth and live in harmony for the ‘common good’ of all. E Pluribus Unam, Out of many One’ has been our nation’s motto since 1788. We are still seeing if this is possible.
The 3ed big HR historic event, with International and Universal implications, was issued on December 10, 1948 called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations, (led by Elinor Roosevelt). It sets out the basic ‘self-evident’ ‘unalienable rights’ that belongs to every human being, including equality, freedom, justice, and dignity. Building on this, the UN adopted in 1954 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Treaty. This treaty protects HR such as life, liberty, free expression, religious freedom, fair trials, and political participation. Alongside with this treaty is the 1976 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Treaty, focusing on Economic and Social Rights. In 2005 The UN adopted the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect ( called R2P) and formed the International Criminal Court the ICC, which meets in the Hague, and protects populations from genocide, war crimes, Ethnic cleansing and crimes against Humanity. However, under the UN Charter Article 2: countries are protected from interference in their internal affairs and The ICC court decisions are unenforceable without UN Security Council approval, which because of the veto power of major nation, is unlikely,
The main difference between UN HR and US HR is essentially that The US Constitution protects individual HR through placing enforceable limits on the US government, while the UN envisions a broader universal social concept of HRs that all nations should strive to achieve, such as basic pay, health care, child care, senior care, adequate housing, guaranteed retirement benefits, and a minimum standard of living.In the US, these are so far not self-evident human rights, but privileges.
A Quick Worldwide Current View of Human Rights
China’s government has created a fast growing economy that combines the market place and socialism with an autocratic government. For now, individual have basically given up their individual HR rights for the sake of efficiency for the common good. One rule in China is: Don’t complain! It has given them 28,000 miles High speed trains, an electric car like a Tesla at one third the price and it has become the equal economic rival of the US.As long as the economic magic is working, HR struggles, so far seem highly unlikely, but I’m hopeful.
Russia: with Putin has become a Fanciest government that rules by violence and fear. Russia did not sign UN HR declaration. HR struggles there, are not likely without brutal retribution
The European Union, Brittan and Canada PROBLEM: 6 of G7 nations have debt above 100% of GDP, making it difficult affording health care and senior care, while life and health spans are zooming into the 90s and 100s. When France retirement was raised from 62 to 64, it almost cause a government shutdown. GOOD: Parliamentary system
Most of the Islamic World functions as a Theocracy: Saudia Arabia; did not sign the UN Decoration of HR The 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights, states that in all Islamic Nations, HR are subject to Sharia Law: which 1) Rejects freedom to change religion. 2) Enforces freedom of speech restrictions, including blasphemy laws 3) Applies-differences to women HR 4) Defends capital punishment. They seem unable to reach a ‘Bruno type’ Theocracy tipping point
Africa was covered by Lynda, a couple of weeks ago.
So now, lets look at the current HR situation in the USA, There appears to be flaws in the United States Constitution that has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to grant the President, ‘immunity’ and ‘implied powers,’ such as’ ‘executive orders,’ and extraordinary military powers as ‘Commander-and-Chief.’ This has given the President the power to issue military strikes and over 250 executive orders which have the binding force of law and ‘do not’ need the approval of the United States Congress. At any time Congress could use it powers of oversight and issue legislation and laws to limit these Imperial Presidential powers, but it has so far declined to act.
Of the 27 grievances that the Deceleration of Independence declared against King George, I believe 10 of these HR violations are now being violated by the current administration. Although I consider this administrations attacks on journalists, legal immigrants, free speech the independence of the Dep of Justice and other issues important, For the sake of brevity, I will concentrate on just one area: the Individual Rights of those designed to protect civilians from Federal Military Power. Those protections include The 1st Amendment: Freedom of Speech, and the Right to Assemble and Protest. The 2ed Amendment: The right to carry arms and form a militia. The Third Amendment prevents soldiers from occupying private homes, while the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments guarantee individuals privacy, due process, civilian jury trial and ensuring that civilians cannot be searched, detained, or punished by the military, without lawful courts.
Congress in the past, has reinforced the Constitutional protections against the military, through the Posse Act of 1878, designated to keep soldiers out of civilian policing. The Supreme Court has upheld these limits in Youngstown v. Sawyer (1952). However, it should be noted that the President can invoke the Insurrection Act, Section 253, which can nullify all these Constructional and legal protections.
There is a is a critical U.S. federal law, 42 U.S.Code 1983 allowing individuals to sue state and local government officials or entities for violating their constitutional or federal rights, but so far, not Federal officials. While the judicial system and the Supreme Court argue what is Constructional or lawful, it appears that the majority of Americans, (particularly since the Minneapolis shootings), appear to be more concerned about, what is right, Self-evident and Unalienable. It takes time for the judicial system to clarify laws OR for Congress to pass new laws and there can be a lot of damage done to our democracy and our HR in-between elections. In the meantime, “What can each of us do to insure that the ‘consent of the governed’ and our individual self-evident and unalienable rights are followed?
Some have suggested, we take to the streets in protest? This responsibility cannot be taken lightly. Let me tell you my own story of protesting, that puts this into perspective. In 1968 the Viet Nam War divided the nation. I was against the war, but for the US troops to come home. The 1968 Democratic Convention was held in Chicago and I attended a peaceful anti-war protest of about 1000 people in Grant Park, when someone took down the American flag from a flagpole. The police came in swinging clubs. Us men instinctively formed a line, and hooked arms, to let the women and children escape. I was hit on the head and seriously injured.
That night, the television coverage switched back and forth between the convention floor, where Humphrey was being nominated, and TV coverage of a police riot that was occurring in front of Conrad Hilton Hotel on Michigan Ave. Demonstrators shouting, “The whole world is watching,” were being clubbed and pulled into patty wagons. Across the street from the Hilton, in my bloodied head bandana, I encountered a line National Guard troops with rifles, fixed bayonet and in gas masks. Between the blinding flood lights and the remnants of tear gas, the troops only appeared as surreal silhouette, when one of the silhouettes shouts, Birkelbach. It was my friend Steve Elkins, called up by the National Guard, who sits a couple of desks away from me. I asked,”How you doing?” He said, ‘We’re scared.” I said, “Who am I fighting. I think I’m going home.” I’ll never forget what he then said, “I wish I could.”
On a Micro scale, this is just two friends talking. But on a Macro scale, it was the artificial axiom of ‘Us vs Them that put us two friends in this situation and in this particular case, it was Us vs Us. At any moment someone could have tried to take a rifle away from one of the National Guard troops and my friend could have been ordered to shoot me. I tell this story, because hitting the streets in protest sounds like an easy solution, but as a practical matter it can be complicated, dangerous and is unfortunately a last resort. However, We the People, will only be the home of the Free, if we remain the home of the Brave.
It was TV cameras that told the truth In 1965 in Selma Alabama, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic convention. Now in Minneapolis, and it’s cellphone videos telling the truth. To quote from a recent Feb 12th NYT editorial board article, “The current crisis is’nt just a test of the 3 branches balance of power, it’s a test of the Bill Of Rights. When the illegality stems from the government itself, the damage is even worse. It sets us on a dangerous course in which tactics now used against a few, may ultimately be wielded against the many.” End quote. Unfortunately it reminds me of the poem “and then they came for me.” stated at the end of the WSHINGTON DC Holocaust Memorial
The Futures for Human Rights
I reject the future views of dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Orwell feared pain, censorship and Big Brother totalitarianism, while Huxley feared control through pleasure drugs and genetic embryo engineering of the classes. I also reject the future outcome forecast in the 2013 movie Elysium, where the very wealthy live on luxury space station, while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth of poverty, rising seas and pollution.
When I asked AI about the future of HR she said, “Lower your shields. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.” That of course, comes from the cyborg’s message to humanity in Startrek. I am also reminded of Asimov’s Robot and Foundation Series, where civilization, in order to protects itself from AI, returns to analog. I am concerned about how New Technology, the Social Network and Artificial Intelligence will affect HR. However, this opens up an entirely new large topic of equity, privacy, surveillance and free speech, which deserves another presentation for another time.
Here, is my opinion about the future. Darwin says it is the survival of the fittest. However, I believe that’s only partly true. I believe humanity has progressed because of our connectedness, which has created civilization out of jungles. I am optimistic about the future. I believe Us vs Them and Us vs Us, has reach its pinochle and the pendulum is ready to swing back toward justice. I expect the America people to say Enough, as it did with slavery, women’s rights, civil rights and gay rights.
I believes in the meaning of Lincoln’s civil war ‘better angels speech’ when he said that the American people, at their core, love this country and that our better angels will once again prevail to bring out the basic virtues of our nation, which are kindness, generosity, respect, empowerment, community, joy, compassion and the common good. I believe in the good hearts of Americans people and the good hearts of people that I have met throughout the world. And that includes the Russian people I have met in St Petersburg and the hundreds of people I have interviewed in Europe, over the last 3 years.
We have been given a wake-up call that should shake us out of our complacency of all we assumed was given and established This should motivate a new generation of heroes and leaders. Sometimes the flame of human rights has to be reignited and the spring has to be recompressed, in order to spring forward again. To do this we have to change our attitudes from fear and anger to hope. It will only happen if we believe it can happen. As Martin Luther King said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
I just hope this happens in my lifetime, but I am confident it will happen. The Great Experiment is actually working. I know that from my grandmother born in Poland, my father born in Germany, from my wife born in Canada, From my daughter-in-law born in China, by my son-in-law born in Ireland, my oldest granddaughter’s husband born in Austria and my second oldest granddaughter’s husband born in India. E Plutus Unarm, Out of many One. For many of our children it is already happening, because for them, more than 50% of our kindergarten students are non-white. In urban areas, they play together as one humanity and not divided by race. Their commonality and connectedness, just hasn’t bubbled-up to the voting surface yet. As MLK said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
In my opinion, the biggest warning has come from James Madison, architect of the Constitution and author of the BIll of Rights, who on June 20, 1888, (the day the Construction was ratified) said “If there e be no virtue and intelligence in the voting public there can be no virtue and wisdom in those that are elected.” As Pogo said in a 1970 cartoon ‘We have seen the enemy and it is us.” It is time to trash what divides us and to emphasis our common good.
We can do better, and we will. We cannot be passive complainers and observers. Ultimately the defense of HR both at home and abroad depends on engaged, informed citizens, who are willing to actively participate in upholding their self-evident and unamiable HR. We stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us. It is just another challenge in a long row of candles, on a journey where Human Rights struggles to achieve the never ending quest for human dignity, which emphases our universal commonality and connectedness. HR are not preserved by parchment, they are preserved by people. It is now our turn to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.
QUESTIONS
- Are Human Rights universal, self-evident and unalienable, or do they depend on culture and national values? Are rights discovered like gravity or are they invented like traffic laws. Are their limits, such as hate speech, privacy, blasphemy, journalistic investigative reporting of government secrets?
- How far can international laws go in interfering with a country internal affairs, to stop Human Rights abuses? Is sovereignty no longer absolute? What rights are universal?
- What role do ordinary US citizens have in protecting their Human Rights in the US? Can they make a difference?
- What obligation do US ordinary citizens have in in protecting Human Rights globally? Does Manifest Destiny* still apply?
- What do you think the future of Human Rights will be like in the US?
*Manifest Destiny supporters believed in the superiority of American culture and government, viewing expansion as a God-given right to bring liberty to the entire world
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