Hello loves! Sorry about not posting last week- midterms and sickness had me down for the count (I'm still a little sick but, hey, I can't let it get the best of me).
My topic today is human rights. This topic has actually been on my mind for a while now. On my way back from the store last week, my friend and I came across a few volunteers that were standing outside when one of them called to us, asking if we supported gay rights and wanted to contribute. Now, mind you, it was cold and a little windy- about 40 degrees Fahrenheit (and that's a generous estimate), and after being outside on the walk back to campus, I wanted nothing more than to get inside my warm building. But I decided to take a look. Long story short, I donated nine dollars to the Human Rights Campaign. (Also note that in addition to being bisexual and knowing that my rights could/would be affected if more people knew about my sexual orientation, I contributed because I am an LGBTQ ally and I support human rights)
So, human rights. What are they? According to businessdictionary.com:
The fundamental rights that humans have by the fact of being human, and that are neither created nor can be abrogated by any government
The Human Rights Campaign is a campaign that encourages and rallies support for equal rights in the LGBTQ community so that they match those of their heterosexual counterparts.
Basically, human rights are rights that belong to all humans, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, skin color, eye color, music tastes, and so on. Human rights are the base of equality and justice, but this concept has reached the entire world yet. It's seen in the places that do not allow their women to vote, work places that don't permit homosexual people to work under their employment, etc.
So why do I support human rights? Look at it this way- the way the world is today, I am the bane of society, plagued with many things that set me at a disadvantage. I am: a woman, an African-American/black, young, Wiccan, bisexual- and those are the main things. I know that even based on my appearance, people in the world will judge me based on what they know about people who look like I do- and that is without knowing what I am about. I support human rights because I know what it is like to be at a disadvantage for things that are out of my control, such as my race, my lineage, etc. After these prejudices are overcome in my own town, state, and even country, of course I want the same for everyone because I know what it's like. Anyone who denies a person or group of people certain things or choices that everyone else has is just... wrong. Just wrong.
Now to the nitty gritty: What can we do? Well, I've mentioned it before- it all starts with us. We enforce these laws and what is accepted by policing ourselves, inside of our societies. Try not to deny anyone anything based on race, nationality, appearance, religion- whatever- only deny their request if, and only if, it is not within reach or reason, or if it would be unjust to grant them their request. That said, do not deny the actual person- only their request. If we knew how powerful we were, things would be different. Much different, I'm sure.
So I will leave you guys to chew on that for now. As with most of my topics, there's always more to say here, so it's likely I'll come back to this in a future post. Later, peoples!
Cough cough,
~H.P. Echo~
