(no subject)
Jan. 17th, 2009 12:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueHere is the European Convention of Human rights on wikipedia.
Would you mind having a quick look please? Yes you. Who's reading this now.
OK, now visualise someone you dislike. Maybe they're dirty. Maybe they're smelly. Maybe they're drunk and asking you for money on the street.
Now, this person. Do you feel it within you to stand up for _their_ human rights?
Here's the thing. These are not rights applicable to you. They are ... a set of obligations. A set of things that if you agree with them, you should be standing up now and fighting for them. No one will 'give' you rights. No one will stand up for that person on the street that you imagined, and say 'this man deserves better'. Not unless you're prepared to do so.
So please, stop for a moment, and consider. Are you prepared and willing to say 'Not in my world'. To speak out against all that would consider 'human rights' an exercise in expediency?
This is not something that we can turn aside from. Not if we cannot accept that some day, it might be us that's held in question.
Would you mind having a quick look please? Yes you. Who's reading this now.
OK, now visualise someone you dislike. Maybe they're dirty. Maybe they're smelly. Maybe they're drunk and asking you for money on the street.
Now, this person. Do you feel it within you to stand up for _their_ human rights?
Here's the thing. These are not rights applicable to you. They are ... a set of obligations. A set of things that if you agree with them, you should be standing up now and fighting for them. No one will 'give' you rights. No one will stand up for that person on the street that you imagined, and say 'this man deserves better'. Not unless you're prepared to do so.
So please, stop for a moment, and consider. Are you prepared and willing to say 'Not in my world'. To speak out against all that would consider 'human rights' an exercise in expediency?
This is not something that we can turn aside from. Not if we cannot accept that some day, it might be us that's held in question.
