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December
10th, 1998 marked the 50th anniversary of
the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is the world's most widely accepted standard
for judging a nation's actual circumstance concerning the protection
of human rights. Implied throughout the document is the belief that
all nations should be similarly held to a set of globally accepted
standards related to how it treats its citizens. Let us acknowledge,
that if the United States government is to stop looking hypocritical,
it must accept the idea that people in other countries have the
right, just as Americans do, to choose their own national direction
and leaders, whether the United States approves of them or not.
The United States of America does not have the right, wisdom nor
ability to run the world.
When
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came out against America's war in Vietnam,
and the nature of American foreign policy in general, urging young
men not to participate in unjust wars, most mainstream leaders and
much of the general public were disappointed and/or angry. But Dr.
King was right and they were confused. There is similar confusion
and hesitance today. And as a result, few leaders are prepared to
speak out against the current plots and plans of richer countries
to dominate poorer ones.
Recent
reports issued by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
on human rights abuses, in the United States, were dismissed, by
many in this country, mainly because, when you're in denial, the
truth can hurt. One wonders how long the United States government
will continue to quote the world's most recognized human rights
watch dogs, including the U.N., on their findings related to China,
Iraq, and Cuba, etc., while it ignores the organizations' conclusions
concerning systematic violations in this country, related to areas
including: economic inequalities, racism and the judicial system,
police brutality, prison conditions, the death penalty, political
prisoners, and the training, support and protection of human rights
abusers overseas.
Nevertheless,
we must not allow ourselves to become apologists for human rights
violations committed anywhere or for a foreign policy that puts
the profits of gigantic multi-national businesses before the interests
of working people, here and abroad. This is not the King tradition
nor the tradition of progressive America. As we do for ourselves,
building our own institutions and coalitions with others, we must
speak out. Opinion polls only reflect what is popular or what ruling
elites would have us believe, not necessarily what is right or true.
On
April 16, 1967, not long before his assassination, from his father's
pulpit in Atlanta, Dr. King spoke in the tradition, saying:
"And
don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine,
messianic force to be, a sort of policeman for the whole world.
God has a way of standing before the nations with judgement. And
it seems that I can hear God saying to America, you're too arrogant.
And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the
backbone of your power and place it in the hands of a nation that
doesn't even know my name. Be still, and know that I'm God."
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