As Confucius said…

Today is Bloggers Unite For Human Rights day when bloggers who participate in the program agree to post an article on Human Rights. There is a list of human rights issues at Amnesty International, an organization whose efforts I wholeheartedly support. Here are just the headings from that list:

• International Trade in Arms and Military Training
• Business & Human Rights
• Children
• Crisis in Darfur
• The Death Penalty
• Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Education
• The Environment
• International Criminal Court
• International Justice
• LGBT Human Rights
• Prisoners of Conscience
• Racial Profiling
• Refugees
• Torture
• U.S. Domestic Human Rights
• The “War on Terror”
• Women

It’s an almost overwhelming list, isn’t it.

I encourage you to go to the above link and read the short paragraphs about the topics that resonate with you. If you wish to dig a little deeper, that information is available there as well.

We need organizations such as Amnesty International to confront governments and other large entities such as multinational corporations. But, aside from supporting groups such as Amnesty International with our time and money, perhaps the most powerful thing we can do is examine our own behavior and attitudes, asking ourselves “What’s in my own heart?”

That’s the bottom line I think, because the world’s large entities are but reflections of its constituent members. Ultimately, all policy arises from the grass-roots. If the smallest level is bigoted, discriminatory, judgmental, dictatorial, repressive, then the larger organism will be as well.

I believe that if the people truly embrace human rights, then no government or larger entity can long remain at odds with the will of the people.

I believe that even governments such as the one in Burma cannot persist forever once the people are awakened completely. Not that it will ever be easy or happen overnight; it may be very slow, it may be two steps forward and one back (maybe sometimes three back), but I do believe in the inexorable movement of history toward freedom and human rights for all. History can take no other course, ultimately, than toward truth.

As Endicott Peabody said (who was quoted in a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt): “The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward, that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend.”

I know, I know…you can call me Pollyanna, if you want. Nevertheless, I hope you agree that we can best start by making our own lives right, by asking ourselves “What’s in my own heart?” The struggle for human rights begins within the individual.

As Confucius said in Chapter 2, Verse 2 of the Lin Yu:

(Please note: in the above quote, I interpret the word “evil” to mean ill intent toward others, or lack of reciprocity–i.e. the principle of reciprocity is the “Golden Rule.”)

The images above of Lin Yu excerpts are from http://www.confucius.org/lunyu/ed0202.htm.

Most images link to larger images.
click on larger image for closeup

Tagged as: ETC