Today is Human Rights Day, celebrated internationally in honor of the day seventy-six years ago, December 10, 1948, when the United Nations General Assembly announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Thank you, Professor. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs and mankind. I never understand it. It’s so easy to care, to be kind to be compassionate to your fellow man. Human rights and freedom are everything. The brave souls died for it. They are the true heroes of the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt and the UDHR give me hope, even in dark times. They remind me that humanity, at its best, can rise above division and hatred. As America faces an uncertain future, I find solace and strength in these ideals. Human Rights Day is not just a date on the calendar. It is a reminder of who we are and who we can still become.
In these troubled times, may we all find the courage to stand for human rights, as Eleanor Roosevelt did, and ensure that freedom and justice remain not just aspirations, but realities for generations to come.
'Should' is the key word, eh? But, they have been duped -- and we don't generally blame the victims: they who have been blinded. Those who would blind us have always been -- slaveholders, shady dealmakers, racists, misogynists, fraudsters, killers -- we are always shocked by them and have had to recover from and make up for the egregious consequences of their actions. We will be encumbered by them as long as they are exist as well as their conned and blinded victims. We, nevertheless, will persevere in this age-old struggle.
What actions are those exactly? He’s not president yet. But he will be and we’re very excited about it. And you say encumbered, those that voted for him feel relieved and that 49 out of fifty states we’re not happy with the direction of this country under who knows who and became redder. 49 of 50 states. By the way, basket of deplorable’s didn’t work so well for Hillary.
Yes, W is way over his head. His only salient feature was that he loved America. For 20 years is ridiculous. You forgot Obama gotten between that Obama was the most divisive and racist president in our history.
And you know that how? Try this let’s see how brave you are Susan Trump administration accomplishments, since he was already president, I think you’ll be shocked to know of all the good things that he did because being here you’ll never hear any of them
When platitudes become real. The search for conflict was never so great as that moment in history. It’s unfortunate those folks weren’t around in 2022 when Russia was threatening to invade Ukraine and they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO and we refused even though Ukraine was not ready to join. It’s such a twisted behavior to not have said no NATO. But the West instead chose war. My God. All these wonderful platitudes and we chose war.
Here's what it seems like to me. Putin was kicking himself for not expanding into Ukraine while Trump was in his first term, and would clearly have done nothing to interfere. But the new, untested ex-comedian the Ukrainians elected on an anti-corruption platform seemed to give Putin an opportunity, and I think he misjudged Biden, and thought he would hesitate to step up. So Putin, as I recall, tried a 3 day blitzkrieg style invasion, using the least of his troops. Zelensky rose to the occasion with flair however, famously telling Biden, when offered succor in the US, "The fight is here. I don't need a ride, I need ammunition." The Ukrainians, with thousands of years of experience fighting invaders, responded with alacrity, and Zelensky basically shamed NATO and the West into doing the right thing. Putin's desire to steal Ukranian wheat and seaports is not a good reason to invade a sovereign nation unprovoked. Ukranian desire to avoid the bloodbaths of prior Russian invasions of Ukranian territory is not a plot by "globalists", but a free people's desire to maintain their freedom. Remember how there was all that weird internet stuff about Putin being sick right before the invasion? I wonder where that came from? I hate war, but all Putin needs to do is pull his troops, and North Koreas, back to the borders that existed prior to maybe 2005, and leave the Ukrainians alone. This war is on Putin, no one in the rest of the world wanted Putin to invade Ukraine and no amount of fancy words will make the reality of the situation any different.
This is the correct explanation for Ukraine and Putin. His desire to regain the territory of the former Soviet Union is HIS Issue not the right to reassert power over people who do not want him. The same is true of the people of Gaza or Syria who don't want to be the conquered people of Israel. Human rights indeed.
Thank you. Gaza is a tragedy of monumental proportions. Why don't Palestinians elect some sane educated secular moderate people to lead them? Fundamentalists and criminals never make good leaders.
Some think that there is a flaw with the Jihadist Islam that makes them want to convert or kill. Hamas's (are Jihadiists) only goal is to eliminate Israel, how does one negotiate with that? Corrected
Because Netanyahu has kept Israel free that’s why. And it’s amazing that people are willing to post here out of their ignorance about what goes on in Israel and what the political landscape is there.
Careful with your thoughts and words here - look at what we just did - with significant portions of America's electorate sitting on their hands and butts!
Some very rich men spent hundreds of millions of dollars that we know about, plus who knows how much more that we don't, to bamboozle a good portion of the electorate into voting against their own interests. It's now clear that he did not get 50% of the votes, and with every one of the mob-boss loyalty tested cabinet picks he announces, I ask my friends that voted for him if this is what they thought they were getting. It's getting harder for them to justify their choice. We all need to speak up more. I do know one really really devout liberal person who kept assuring me there was no difference between Trump and Harris. I keep asking him if Harris would be making these choices. He's starting to see the light, so to speak.
Could we bring that closer to home? Change Palestinians to Americans and reread your post. And didn't we say the same thing while first Americans were resisting genocide?
I think Biden made a big mistake thinking that Netanyahu would actually take the Palestinians into account, but you have to blame the Iranian Ayatollah as much as Biden if you want to pretend that Netanyahu and Hamas are just puppets, don't you? Yahya Sinwar (sp? Sorry) and Benjamin Netanyahu are similar creatures, willing to let thousands of Palestinians die while they seek to gain ground and stay out of jail.
I hope the Syrian newly moderate and improved Al-quidah guy means what he says, and works with secular Syrian Arabs, Christian and Kurdish factions to restore Syria to it's old status as a center of learning and leadership for the entire Middle East!
Hey Carol, FYI, the United Nations themselves gave Israel a slice of land a sliver of land which they turned into a Mecca of scientific and medical research that has helped the planet while the Arab communities have a land the size of the United States and have done nothing but try to destroy Israel. The problem was that the Palestinians decided to turn over their billions of dollars of income to Hamas and the outcome is what you’re seeing right now. They could’ve used the money to build infrastructure like water plants and electrical plants but they chose to buy weapons instead.
Exactly. Putin made clear what he wanted in Helsinki. One reason chump tried to “win” in 2020. Vlad just had to wait until he could meddle enough to get his puppet reinstalled.
Incorrect Putin did in vain because he knew he’d get his ass kicked and by the way do you know why he is able to enter Ukraine because of something Bill Clinton did back in the mid 90s let’s see how good it research and history you are otherwise Russia would’ve done nothing in Ukraine
Mistakes have been made by all sorts of people all around the globe. Obama should have done this or that, Clinton should have done this or that. In the end,Putin the wannabe restorer of Soviet glory, desiring Ukrainian wheat fields and seaports, massed an army on the Ukrainian border and tried a shock and awe type invasion, but he used untrained and uncommitted conscript troops and outdated and often barely working machinery, which was no match for a bunch of Ukrainian farmers thinking, " Not my farm, not this time, a**holes," who put up a spirited resistance, which the world got to watch, and many of the Russian troops were clearly unprepared for. I know people who fled Ukraine, but then went back for their elders, their property and their country. Modern Americans have never had to fight invaders, so thus will to fight is a little theoretical. For everyday Ukrainians it not about global political balance, it's their lives. And stories they remember being told about prior invasions.
Would I have been pointing out to a few people that are willing to listen? Is it back in the mid 90s? Bill Clinton made a big mistake could’ve been made by any president, but it was made by him. He struck a deal with Poland to remove their nuclear weapons pointed at Russia. First, then came crimea and now Ukraine. Not to mention that NATO has not stepped up like they should have And now they’re just waking up
If my prediction is correct, the Russian Ukraine conflict will be resolved by Ukraine surrendering probably a portion of land to Russia and thereby having an agreement. Which will save a half 1 million lives, Icountless cities, destroyed, and peace once again at least for now.
America has spent over $200 billion on this repeat of Vietnam. The only difference being it’s not our troops that are dying. It’s the 60,000 Ukrainians and hundreds of thousands of Russians that have already died and have their cities destroyed for what ? There has to be a settlement and it will soon come I believe. It may not be a fair settlement to many people‘s minds, but it will stop the bloodshed and the loss of life.
NATO should’ve stepped up in America should’ve stayed out of it and we have hundreds of thousands of homeless on the streets and poverty, and that money could’ve gone a long way into helping these two problems in America for starters
Bill, NATO is a (mostly) defensive pact. Sure NATO bombed Yugoslavia back in the Clinton days for its misbehavior, but has never taken territory from anyone by force, let alone from Russia by force or any other manner such as "annexation" that Putin is so fond of.
And so it is a beyond a stretch to blame NATO for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Do you really think if NATO did not exist that Russia would just sit back and say "we are comfortable within our borders"?
Bill mistakes have been made by all sorts of idiot politicians in both sides in the past. We all need to learn from those mistakes, rather than using them as justification for making more, don't we? Right now Ukraine is fighting to maintain its sovereignty and freedom. Do you honestly think they should stop wanting sovereignty and freedom? Putin started it, the NATO countries see that if he is allowed to run over Ukraine, then it's going to cost more lives and treasure to stop him at some other border and so they have chosen sides and are helping Ukraine. Which side are you on?
You don’t have a good grasp of recent history. The US was heavily involved in the Ukrainian revolution of 2013 which kicked out a pro Russian government. What would we do if a hostile government assisted in overthrowing hum… Panama? Not a great example but we have always invaded to make sure a friendly government was in place. Can you recall Granada?
And btw, I’m not in anyway supportive of Russian behavior. But outright massive was very likely would have or could have been avoided.
Bill, you need to read Prof. Timothy Snyder's lectures at Yale in the fall of 2022 when he gave a course on the History of Ukraine. They are available on YouTube for free.
There are 23 lectures in all. You will learn a lot. .
I’m sure he a brilliant but I read once his 15 reasons and I plainly felt the reasons he expressed were easily contradicted. Please have Professor Snyder give me a call some time.
Hardly the only reason Russia invaded Ukraine.. they're still pissed about the fall of the USSR and view expansion as necessary to regain their control.
Once again Putin's personal depressed emotional neuroses, is not actually an appropriate response to Ukrainians reclaiming their freedom after the fall of the Soviet Union. Only an immature,narcissistic, slightly delusional man thinks, "I want it, so I should have it, and to hell with what anyone else thinks!" Unfortunately, this one has a lot of power to indulge his fantasies, at his disposal, and he has killed around 50,000 Ukrainians and 150,000 Russian troops trying to act out this fantasy. We need the adults in the room to step up and say, "Enough is enough," and put this guy in a time out to think about his choices, you know?
I have argued this issue here before laying out why Ukraine is within the orbit of Russia like nations close to the US have been invaded by us to insure a friendly government. Same as…
Many posters here are so very intolerant of other points of view. And when it comes to avoiding war, we never learn from past mistakes. Never. We either invade or assassinated others. The biggest mistake we made was assassinating the civilian leader of Iran and installing the Shaw ( misspelled) and look how far that has gone? We continually destabilize. The Middle East (and its conflicts and wars) is our fault.
I am intolerant of criminals, autocrats or fundamentalists of any persuasion-Islamists, Christians, Hindus or what have you, taking political control of people they want to take advantage of. Very intolerant!
Yep, everyone has their moments. When I was 4 years old I watched my evangelical aunt, the one who saw angels hovering around my mother's head, beating her 3 year old daughter with a metal spatula, rhythmically, screaming,God's making me do this, God's making me do this" and I did not do everything I could to stop her. I ceased believing in Christianity, and I developed my hatred of bullies in that moment, and I have spent most of my life trying to help people to make up for that failure on my part. I was scared and I did not speak up. Now, any time someone says some version of "Xxx (higher power-God, Allah,Shiva, my own f***ing criminal desire to take advantage of you for my own gain), is telling that I can do something that will hurt you," I am very intolerant of that. And I am suspicious of people who claim they don't see that thought process at work, since it is so glaringly obvious to me. So, what does it seem like to you?
Who said that? Not I. The first president of Russia mistaked and placed in position a future mad man dictator. Russia came close to becoming a modern day republic. I simply have made a case for no good options but better to avoid out right war and all the unintended consequences of it. But our past mistakes are never learned. At this point I say bomb the frick out of Russia. I don’t care. But outright war could have been avoided for one brief moment.
Putin wants to restore all the territory lost when the old USSR collapsed, and even more if he thinks he can get away with it. Ukraine is fighting not just for itself, but for the entire West. If Putin had to call in the North Koreans, Russia is in worse shape than he lets on.
Bill, "they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO". "Only"??? Nonsense.
While some "platitude" of that nature might have delayed slightly Putin's push into Europe, it would hardly have stopped Putin the psychopath in his pursuit of resurrecting the Russian Empire. You really could benefit from some research into who Putin is, how his world view was formed. Putin is Stalin resurrected.
Your assumption that Putin would have been satisfied with some "no Nato" reassurance is based on what? Putin is just a peaceful dude who felt "threatened" by Ukraine? Please dig a little deeper and you will find a monster. Your assumption that he can be pacified is as naive as that of Neville Chamberlain saying he had found "Peace for our time" after signing the Munich agreement with Hitler in 1938.
Experts in international affairs have told us for decades that Putin only responds to and only respects force. Obama should have bolstered efforts to reclaim Crimea when it was stolen on his watch. We should have applied massive sanctions, sent weapons and provided intelligence to Ukraine to enable them to stand strong against a murderer.
Putin has crippled Russia's economy by inviting our punishing sanctions. His oligarchs (the ones who still live in Russia) are warning of bankruptcies. Interest rates are 9% and making no headway in reducing inflation of 21%! Putin is wobbling or he would have easily supported Assad's government. I see a brutal spiral dive for this putz unless Trump bails him out. We should prepare for such a treason.
Biden has been brilliant in his handling of the Russian war on Ukraine. What is about to happen in January may make Chamberlain look like a genius.
I agree 100% with every piece of your argument, especially the comparison with Chamberlain's traitorous stance of appeasement. Obama's failure to act immediately when Putin took Crimea was a huge error, one which bolstered Putin's confidence in taking more, and one that I don't think Biden would have made. Putin ONLY responds to strength. Just say 'no NATO' is absurd and dangerous, and one that I'm afraid Trump will agree to without a second thought. I wish NATO had the votes and the courage to get it done before January 20th. Sweden and Finland were right and smart to work quickly to secure membership. Putin is like Pacman gobbling up everything in his way.
Yeah, "they/we" should have given Zelensky and the first genius general he had everything they asked for immediately and things would different over there now.
And Bill, do you really believe that assuring Russia NATO would not admit Ukraine would have stopped his invasion of Ukraine?!! Assuming NATO had taken that step it would seem remarkably similar to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich agreement with Hitler. Given that Russia was an original abstainer from the UN’s UDHR it seemed far more likely that Russia could then proceed with its invasion without any legal basis for other countries to provide help to Ukraine in repelling that invasion. What legal basis would there have been to provide support for Ukraine? The aspirational UDHR declaration of principles?
Basically a continuing independence movement by Ukrainians, Bill, began long before 1991. The Russians had choices, they chose conquest based imperialism based on Russian irredentist nationalism.
Just like we do. Read American history. Dominant countries dominate. I took a course once in Russian history taught by a former Hungarian general who fought in the 1956 rebellion against the Soviets. And Dr. Dici was right. Smoking camels and teaching Russian history do go together. And you should have seen him the way he held his cigarette.
Bill, to me, those who say we should have denied a path to future NATO membership for Ukraine to appease Russia after Russia invaded Crimea are missing the point and blaming the victim. I say to that, "Nonsese!".
Russia demanding such a concession was pure bullying. Rational analyses determined that Putin wasn't that crazy, and that an a priori guarantee of no-NATO for Ukraine by a rule-based society in which promises and treaties matter pointed towards not promising Putin anything. That analysis was wrong in the first conclusion (Putin was crazy) and was and remains correct on the second conclusion.
To repeat, Russia invaded and occupied Ukraine's Crimea. After that, Zekensky was elected on an anti-corruption platform, but also a nationalist agenda to keep Ukraine strong. Part of that is to join the European Union which required non-corruot government institutions and to join NATO, which would be a protection against further invasion. Putin invaded because he saw Zekensky and Ukraine making progress on the first. Ukraine had also just discovered oil reserves in the Black Sea, which if developed would give it the financial strength to build up its military and support the financial commitments towards defense required by NATO.
(Trump should have supported Ukraine's oil exploration aspirations which ultimately would have strengthened NATO and reduced the risk of American involvement in a hot war in Europe. Instead, he tried to strong-arm Zelensky into throwing doubt about a perceived future political opponent, Joe Biden.)
Wonderful that there is a "human rights" day, but simultaneously heartbreaking that this has to be singled out for a special acknowledgement - shouldn't every single day be such a day to celebrate equality for all? Another great history lesson from the Professor! With all my gratitude for keeping me sane since I signed up for this "class".
A compelling essay on something we can not afford to take for granted, particularly when it comes to the too many little ones suffering without cause, often without pause. https://youtu.be/yN4Uu0OlmTg 😢
Mrs Roosevelt took her lead, and expanded it, from the four freedoms speech given by her late late husband seven years earlier. https://youtu.be/qrNDwyj4u1w 🙏
President Carter took his human rights cue from Mrs Roosevelt; the successor who unseated him could not eradicate that legacy. https://youtu.be/BdnH1BlB1r0 ⚖️
I am OK with special days to focus on essential goals, but yes, that's just a small part of how we can improve and preserve liberty and justice for all. That's pretty muddled at the present, but must not be lost sight of. It's a practice, is it not, individually and it concert. Somehow it is always a struggle.
💔 They included “the right to a standard of living adequate for…health and well-being…, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond [one’s] control.”
Isn't it time to raise the Federal minimum wage to at least $15 and hour AND attach a COLA to the rate?
$7.25 an hour is ridiculous, yet 1.6 million Americans are paid this rate as of 2019.
Each state is empowered to embrace the minimum wage in their state. Just as Missouri did recently but some as states do not even embrace the federal minimum. .I believe Georgia Louisiana and Mississippi are those states.
Harris did mention it while 😡dodged the question. In his recent Meet The Press interview/ramble he said he would consider but would need to speak with governors first…..and we know how that translates!
Ok cool. I did watch many rallies but must of missed it. Not talking about overtime pay but base pay which should be $25 per hour these days. Of course the felon rapist won’t do anything.
Lauren, exactly. I am also in her ‘history class’. Yesterday, I joined the shop-for Christmas crowd in a place quite far from home. First went to Target. I’d never been. Huge! Overwhelming. We asked a woman for directions, and she not only answered but actually led us toward the precise spot. A woman of color, she was friendly, caring and I thought a beauty. Then I met two other people where I found the gift: a young woman carrying a small basket type ball who answered my questions as we chatted about playing basketball, others joining in, then a man from Ghana who brought out the gift I bought. His smile lit up the store.
As we left that area, we all wished each other a peaceful holiday; I said to my shopping pal, “Isn’t this the best? Meeting those three amazing people much are more important than the gift?” Every day fir me is human rights day.
Absolutely, every day should embody the principles of equality, dignity, and respect for all. Human rights are universal and timeless, and while a designated day helps raise awareness and inspire action, the values it represents should guide us every day.
I apologize for posting this multiple times, but it just seems so relevant:
"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men (sic), in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
Though it's been said, many times, many ways. Past world wars and many other atrocities testify to why it's a lesson we can never afford to forget. Hurray for those who help us keep that focus.
Interesting to see Romania's reaction to extensive Russian interference in their election after the social media driven success of a pro - Putin candidate .
They exposed the details and their Supreme Court annulled the election.
"The genius of your own independence" That is a wonderful way to express the idea of freedom!
Regardless of the circumstances, if we encourage that "genius" in every person we encounter and ask only that they pay it forward & do the same, one day the dream WILL come true. It's something everyone can do; a contribution we can all make, and it doesn't require wealth, political clout, a louder voice, or coercive power - just steadiness of purpose.
And some measure of empathy and self-discipline. We cant maintain a truly free country without that. What Joseph Welch (who interrogated Joe McCarthy) called "decency"?
You could not publish these wonderful words too much. We need to read the words you shared often as well as the words on The Statue of Liberty. We need to live out these words with all who live in our country. We are to be a LIGHT in this world.
We are here to offer the HOPE that has been encouraged by the dear regular citizenry who came before us and who humbly worked and served those in need.
Eleanor Roosevelt was one of great character. She always looked beyond herself. Her presence within the United Nations allowed her even greater opportunity to meet the needs of others...to build up peace instead of war, here and throughout the world.
I once had a pet rooster in childhood and I named him Harry after my Uncle Harry. Leave my chickens alone. I’m guilty enough having to buy 25 pounds of chicken thighs to make cat food for my demanding cats.
Putin’s fan boy sounds off again, and again as usual wrong. It is the Republican six on the Supreme Court that revoked, for the first and so far only time in American history, a recognized right: That of women to decide their own reproductive freedom, balanced of course with the potential viability of the fetus outside the potential mother’s body.
Constitutional rights should not be subject to a vote of the people, Dred Scott notwithstanding, in which the Supreme Court held Blacks have "No Rights Which the White Man was Bound to Respect".
Ed, wish I could “presto-changeo” morph Rick into a young female living in a state with severe restrictive reproduction laws. He needs to proverbially “walk a mile” in another’s shoes to get some perspective (and who knows, he might learn a lot!). Alas, that would be too cruel….
So Steve, that’s pretty incredible that you can change my algorithm. I happen to voice text everything and so you can determine or try to twist my post to whatever you like, but I am a human being first generation American that loves this country. Feel free to deny or refute anything I say.
You may not be a bot, but you are certainly a troll, whose posts often seem to come off as pro-Putin.
A troll is “a person who intentionally antagonizes others online by posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content. Internet trolls. In the late 1980s, Internet users adopted the word "troll" to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities.”
I understand and do not for a second think my posts will change he/she/its position. My replies are intended to provide an alternative view for other more open minded readers to consider.
How you can make such a statement is mind boggling! How do you account for the state of Missouri whose voters put abortion/reproductive rights on their state ballot to be enshrined in their state constitution and won yet the MAGA GOP state legislature is trying their best to overturn the VOTERS voice? Explain how the voters are in control again, please.
Well, good luck with that. Let me know when it happens… that their abortion rights are overturned. Every piece of news I read is that the voters approved Measure three which overturned the legislatures original posture on abortion rights once again, prognosticating about what might happen…
Recently Jessie Waters asserted that Human Rights Watch was “probably the one organization that wants to tear western civilization down —pillars by pillar.” This in response to the Sarah McBride bathroom spectacle. One of my favorite quotes about the importance of the human rights endeavors is Eleanor Roosevelt’s:
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
It is just to highlight this vitriolic attitude towards the world view that embraces these values …not unlike the backlash against environmental standards as somehow unAmerican. Another quote of Eleanor’s that meets the Waters comment in this circumstance: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
But Barbara I don’t think we can ignore the rhetoric used by people like Waters, Stephen Miller, and other MAGAs because like it or not this is the kind of bate click that is amplified million fold via social media algorithms. And, to bring it back around to Eleanor’s small places quote, we have to engage with citizens in the books and crannies of their lives if we are going to win the battle for their hearts and minds, making real the great ideas behind sweeping principles like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But we already know how he is. My larger point is this. Are we spreading their hatred when we repeat what they say? The media never stops repeating all the awful things said because it has the scintillating cash value of watching a car wreck.
It just seems that if we are to spread the messages outlined in Dr. Richardson's Letter today, we could do better repeating those ideals over and over and work to overwhelm the evil words by simply not speaking them.
I agree with this perspective Barbara…I would not lead with this type of juxtaposition if I had a bully pulpit from which to address the general public. I use the comments here often to vent and to discuss on the sidelines. I will add though that I think we have to look hard at the possible necessity of actually framing the contest between progressive values and policies and the politics that just ‘won’ the US election as a fight against and not just for. I have taken a deep dive into some of the thinking about how to engage people in the democratic process and people like Josh Lerner at People Powered have made a case for including this kind of direct confrontation of ideas and values as part of the struggle. His is not the only voice on this score. I think our current moment in a global level is oppositional in the balance of power between a truly democratic form of government that embraces human rights and demands human responsibility and the autocratic/oligarch each-to—their-own, strong eat the weak nihilism that is Putin, Orban, Xi, Kim, et Al. Only 8 percent of the world population lives under a full democracy. As Harris might put it we hoping to turn the tide are the underdogs. And making a case for change requires a clear articulation of what you think is wrong about the other options’ messaging and intentions.
Venting is needed. If venting is all someone does, then we have the situation of people living in the problem. Direct confrontation is great. Giving undue airtime to what the opposition is saying and doing is counterproductive. Remember the cardinal rule of authoritarians: repeat it enough and people will start to believe it.
So what we have here is a matter of balance. And intent.
I am struck by the historic language of principles set against the recently elected segment that would undermine those same principles in the name of religion, capitalism, and American White Supremacy.
I'm just now reading Anne Applebaum's book and I recommend it for everyone. Like HCR, she is another brilliant woman whose writing "keeps our eyes on the prize." To me, the most important message is that we band together and demand transparency from our government and institutions. Right now, the kleptocracy is getting away with murder.
Last night, I listened to a piece about how the Murdoch family are infighting and it brought joy to my heart. Lachlan, Rupert’s mini-me, is the heir-apparent to Fox mudding up facts. His siblings are in total disagreement of how it should be run after Rupert’s demise. It is “Succession” being played out in real time. Truly, Rupert is a Putin ally because Fox wanted (wants) to become THE state tv station of America. They already won the propaganda field of reporting, although they were successfully sued by Dominion. OAN is even revamping news because quite frankly, even their audiences are dropping off like flies. It’s a pleasure to hear, Ellie.
I think the election of Trump was a more or less direct backlash reaction to our first black president, Barack Obama.
Trump is riding a wave of White Supremacy, White Nationalism, and Christian Nationalist fervor currently infecting the American body politic. Many whites simply couldn’t abide a black man in the White House.
“In the emails, [Stephen] Miller, an adviser to the Trump campaign at the time, advocated many of the most extreme white supremacist concepts. These included the “great replacement” theory, fears of white genocide through immigration, race science, and eugenics; he also linked immigrants with crime, glorified the Confederacy, and promoted the genocidal book, The Camp of the Saints, as a roadmap for U.S. policy.”
Some WHITE people couldn’t stand even the thought of a BLACK man occupying the WHITE house that BLACK men built. Will we ever get over what slavery did to this country?
To choose to treat any human being as "less than" is a human sickness each of us must fight against....no matter the color of one's skin.
I thank God for each and every soul who has recognized hatred or prejudice within themselves and who have chosen to fight against this soul
destroying human problem.
It takes each and all of us to choose to build up or to tear down, to control, or to appreciate our various strengths and gifts, our beautiful humanity....and in doing so to work together to accomplish great things.
I wish prejudice did not exist.
As Pax Linson stated, it is not only the color of ones sin, but also personal life choices. How much better just to love one another and stop looking for ways to put someone else down in order to lift ourselves up!!!
Francine, you ask a critical question, “ Will we ever get over what slavery did to this country?”
No, sadly and tragically I don’t think so. The Bible posits that humanity is stained by Original Sin.
America, for as wonderful and transformative as its goal and promise is, and it is, is stained by two original sins: Slavery and our treatment of indigenous peoples, aka Native Americans.
Individual people can strive to conduct themselves by the Golden Rule, the King James Version of the Bible which reads
Matthew 7:12.
"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets"
Addressing America’s dual original sins is more problematic and challenging, especially given our federal system of distributed powers, and the fact that America is a complex multicultural milieu of often contradictory views.
The reality on the ground is described well by Colin Woodard in his book, American Character A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty & the Common Good.
“The author of American Nations examines the history of and solutions to the key American question: how best to reconcile individual liberty with the maintenance of a free society
The struggle between individual rights and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of nearly every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agendas of the Federalists, the Progressives, the New Dealers, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party. In American Character, Colin Woodard traces these two key strands in American politics through the four centuries of the nation s existence, from the first colonies through the Gilded Age, Great Depression and the present day, and he explores how different regions of the country have successfully or disastrously accommodated them. The independent streak found its most pernicious form in the antebellum South but was balanced in the Gilded Age by communitarian reform efforts; the New Deal was an example of a successful coalition between communitarian-minded Eastern elites and Southerners.
Woodard argues that maintaining a liberal democracy, a society where mass human freedom is possible, requires finding a balance between protecting individual liberty and nurturing a free society. Going to either libertarian or collectivist extremes results in tyranny. But where does the sweet spot lie in the United States, a federation of disparate regional cultures that have always strongly disagreed on these issues? Woodard leads readers on a riveting and revealing journey through four centuries of struggle, experimentation, successes and failures to provide an answer. His historically informed and pragmatic suggestions on how to achieve this balance and break the nation s political deadlock will be of interest to anyone who cares about the current American predicament political, ideological, and sociological.”
In his book American Nations, Woodard argues persuasively that while America is one country it is comprised of 11 geographically more or less distinct nations with very different value systems. The situation is further complicated by the urban rural divide which smudges the overall geographical patterns.
You’re welcome. Phillips devotes one chapter in American Character to describing the different nations that comprise this one country.
In it he uses an approach pioneered by Kevin Phillips, which is to follow the characteristics and migration patterns of groups of people, which he pioneered in The Emerging Republican Majority, published in 1969, but given earlier to Richard Nixon, and in which Phillips developed the explicitly racist Southern Strategy.
He eventually came to regret his connection to and influence on Nixon and America. He later wrote American Theocracy, in which he noted that the one southern institution that survived the Civil War and Reconstruction and which served as a vital refuge for Southern Planter Class, and those who approved of enslaving Blacks was the Southern Baptist Convention or Church.
Other Protestant denominations like Methodists and Lutherans abandoned their north-south divisions. Southern Baptist congregations are now found across the whole country.
The backlash is described in part by the old “Kiss up, kick down” phenomenon.
Sadly for them transsexuals are the newest low rung on that sorry ladder.
Bashing Blacks went out of style in the 20th century Civil Rights era, so homosexuals became the next target. But too many politicians turned out to have gay or lesbian family members, so that lost favor as a convenient scapegoat of the right, so the crosshairs turned to transsexuals.
Their existence evokes a eeewww response from many who do not personally know any trans folks, and they are in sufficiently low frequency in the population to be the right’s convenient scapegoat du jour.
Ed, all that you mention was present in 2020. There is certainly a part of the electorate that this applies to, but we will never change their minds. There was more to it this time, legions of "normies", women, people of color moved towards trump. Those people wanted change and were willing to swallow the bitter orange pill and vote for trump. We need to speak to those people if we want to win next time.
“American company, Russian propaganda: New Kremlin tactic reveals escalating effort to sway US vote
…
Attorney General Merrick Garland, center, speaks before a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Washington, with from left, Deputy Attorney General, Criminal Division, Nicole Argentieri, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, Matthew Olsen. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has long sought to inject disinformation into U.S. political discourse. Now, it’s got a new angle: paying Americans to do the work.
This week’s indictment of two Russian state media employees on charges that they paid a Tennessee company to create pro-Russian content has renewed concerns about foreign meddling in the November election while revealing the Kremlin’s latest tactic in a growing information war.”
TY HCR. This is such an important Letter. I learned so much as i always do. I imagine Commander Kirk reading this from the Starship Enterprise. UDHR. Colonialism destroyed so much.
Interesting how South Africa abstained from voting. Both Musk and Thiel spent formative years in South Africa.
Declarations against torture, for human rights -- remind us of Syria freed now.
Syria’s 20 million people were already divided by sects. Assad exploited that, every bit as Orban did Hungarian xenophobia, and Trump exploited U.S. racism.
We have much to celebrate, with the Syrians, but many more cautionary tales around the world.
Following release from Assad’s vicious regime, Syrians know democracy may help them manage their religious and tribal sectarianism. Is the U.S. helping? How many readers of Heather on these anniversaries of human rights and against torture can cite any signs of the U.S. sponsoring any school programs so Syrians -- or anybody -- may see each other as individuals, rather than units replicating sectarian and other stereotypes?
Answer is, nobody can cite any such U.S. programs. Americans can’t lead or model any such because of how, since the Powell memo of 1971, that memo's far-right foundations let Americans follow Mao’s “cultural revolution” in China by perverting education – first by killing humanities, then substituting instead all the abstracting and categorizing of standardized tests.
Could Americans restore school humanities? The behavior of Dems in recent national elections says no. Dems had zero messaging for the humane aspects of Biden administration successes, because no Dems had any grounding in any of the arts in touch with the damaged American working classes.
Celebrate anniversaries against torture and for human rights? A bit hollow, when not accompanied by practical programs enlisting good teachers and schools.
I agree that some manner of humanities instruction is essential, but I would include some sort of theory and guidance of social interaction, from improving personal communication skills to how to justly manage societal conflicts. It's not like we don't ever address this at all, but I'm thinking about exploring skills to keep to keep the peace. Education, in my view, gives us tools to live and experience a successful life. That includes creating all the stuff the Constitution's preamble sets out as national goals.
It has been said that Hitler exploited the resentment of bad treatment of Germans after WWI. How much kinder and strategic to our national interests was the Marshall Plan in the wake of WWII?
As a former professor of Applied Communication, I can’t stress enough the importance of interpersonal communication skills. They can be learned and improved upon. It does require some self introspection, which many are uncomfortable with.
Now that Footage of the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza is starting to Leak-Out into the MSM, the Reality of the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza is becoming evident... The U.N. has been rendered powerless by the Netanyahu Gov't... Speaking of Syria haven't the Israelis conducted extensive Air-Strikes, seized Territory in Southern Syria? Indeed the USA has conducted extensive Air Strikes as well... These actions undermine the Relevance of the intent of the U.N. Charter... Both Israel, and the USA are members of the U.N. ... Indeed DJT has nominated Elise Stefanik as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. ... What A Far Cry From Eleanor Roosevelt.. The last time I saw the U.N. Secretary-General in the MSM, António Guterres seemed like a Tragic Figure who knew that the U.N's time has passed...
BUN are now a gang of Jew haters. That’s OK with you. Please continue to support them. Israel is an independent nation given cell by the UN in 1948. It is about the size of Rhode Island. Arab nations are the size of the United States.
Israel is not on the office it is always on the defense.
Lebanon is smaller than Israel, so is Gaza... None of the Arab Nations are the size of the U.S. ... Netanyahu has proclaimed that the Golan Heights is part of Israel now... That is not Defense, that is a Land Grab... I don't see how that leads to Peace in the Future, unless it is the 'Peace Of The Graveyard' that You Want...
That defense is called denial and it won’t help you change the subject and it won’t help you change reality. I posted to someone else earlier today that apparently a number of people now have a disease called RDDS in an addition to TDS. Russian disinformation derrangement syndrome. It’s very easy for you to deny reality by calling someone or something about than to actually learning something here.
Very very soon I’m sure they’ll be some big pharmaceutical company that will come out with some medication to deal with your affliction
Israel lies as usual. It is all the time on the offensive but their lies give comfort to those who’ve swallowed the idea of Israelis always good, Palestinians always bad.
Netanyahu is a criminal supported by the US because he is of the Jewish faith. A faith does NOT make anyone holy!!! People of the Jewish faith...as of any faith or no faith live all over this planet.
We Americans, have destroyed the Indians and pushed them into terrible locations for the most part. We too have our share of blood on our hands. We fought one another in the civil war and many are still divided in our personal identity rather than just being "Americans!"
Popes have lead wars as well as many other so called leaders of faith.
To live out ones faith is a choice, it is not easy to choose to do something good for someone else when it means "not getting OUR way". It is easy to use "well meaning " humans to HATE....yes Hate ones fellowman. We are participating in building up "hate" and "revenge"!
WHERE ARE THE HOSTAGES??? ....AT LEAST WHERE ARE THE BODIES OF THE HOSTAGES???? FAMILIES ARE WAITING!!!
Netanyahu is using the US to obtain weapons of mass destruction to kill regular human beings who are trying to feed their children and take them to school and have a normal home and family. We are guilty! We have blood on our hands!!! We are tearing people down NOT building up. Netanyahu is expanding the destruction of the territory of those who live in the middle east.
Netanyahu says ..."the criminals are hiding somewhere in these buildings....these homes" and WE are joining in as we destroy homes, schools, businesses...the future of regular people.
How is this helping to build up our world family????
I say the only one benefiting is Netanyahu!!!! He brings no honor to the great Jewish faith or to Israel.
I pray for those in Syria who want freedom to build up a government for the people. I am concerned that Russia may try to intervene.
We need wise and strong leadership in our government....where will it be found????
Wow, well sorry but I’m gonna give you a PRIMER on the reality of HISTORY AND REAL LIFE. I’m sorry you might wanna grab a box of tissues.
You Cannot name one country on the planet that was not invaded by another That had their indigent population EITHER ENSLAVED OR KILLED by their oppressors. Why do you think South America speak Spanish? Do you think the Inca is the Aztecs and the Maya spoke Spanish? Countries were conquered and reconquered over and over again in history and this is exactly what happened and America was no different. Only when we finished we tried to make reparations versus many other countries that were simply overthrown again and again. At one time almost the entire continent of Europe was run by Italy, thereby called Rome.
You actually might wanna study the origin of the land of Israel and the UN role in its existence. Then we might have something to discuss.
Another ignorant individual here, And I am compelled to respond.
Do you know what the iron dome is? Do you know why Israel has one? Do you know of any other country that has an iron dome?
You should also tried doing some research That’s when you kinda study up on things and see what’s true and what’s not and you obviously haven’t done that
Nobody, including Israel thinks the Palestinians are bad What happened was the Palestinians were given billions of dollars a while ago and decided to let that money be spent by Hamas and against Israel instead of building infrastructure, including water, plants and utility pants they built weapons They voted to have Hamas be their government need I say more. ?
If you look at Gaza and you look at Israel, it’s like looking at a desert and looking at an industrialized futuristic nation, that events things that helps the world in area, such as medicine and science.
The Palestinians relinquish their power and tarnished their name go read up
And by the way, if I’d like to read something about Israel, I won’t wanna read something about from man that is Anti Israel who by the way his thesis is regarding Britain foreign policy to Israel. Which if you read at all know what’s going on in it in Britain with antisemitism Just today another example of British antisemitism has reared its ugly head.
He also believes in a one state system so he’s refusing what the UN did in 1948 and this is the guy you want me to read ? Why don’t I just read the words of the works of Osama bin Laden?
My father was born JEWISH in Palestine in 1912. His and my entire family is from Israel. My wife’s family is from Israel and I follow what’s going on in Israel contemporaneously. So I’m not sure a book is gonna help.
However, Israel was given this sliver of land amongst a gargantuan Arab landmass, and has turned that little sliver into the pride of the world in its assistance with scientific and medical developments in agricultural developments. It’s been attacked half a dozen times since it was given that land in 1948.
And I’ve yet to have somebody tell me if Israel is so offensive why does it need iron dome and why is it the only country to have such a defense.?
You’re talking about individual countries which to me dictates your ignorance about how the mid east works because it’s all run by one location and it’s called Iran. And if you would like to read a book about every single terrorist organization, you’ll find that 98% of them are Muslim And I don’t care to dislike any religion, but that fact remains
I have many Islamic friends just because you are Muslim does not mean you hate Israel. And just because you’re Israeli doesn’t mean you hate Muslims And if not, for the weakness of the Biden administration, Saudi Arabia would now be another ally to Israel as is Egypt now.
Gaza’s chose to have Hamas as its governmental leadership. And they’re in lies the problem
So here we are talking about 2024 after numerous attack on Israel and you’re calling the Israeli territory grabbing goal on height today a land grab that’s rich Not sure if you’ve ever been to the area, but obviously it doesn’t seem like you have otherwise you would understand a little bit better Israel was just attacked from the north and from the east and needs to protect itself in order to protect itself. It needs to have “on “the high ground. Israel can say it’s theirs, but who’s gonna say it is or it’s not. I don’t really care about the goal on height, but obviously it’s a necessary defensive weapon against the hundreds and thousands of rockets that are shot in from there every single day
We would not even be having this conversation if it was October 6 So please spare me your ignorance
I would be willing to bet that 90% of the people posting here about Israel couldn’t identify Gaza on a map without having its name written upon it
There are too many antisemitic movements today, including college campuses countries, institutions, and even governments
So spare me your indignation about the rise of antisemitism all over the world
Yeah, and all these people calling me a bot because they don’t have an answer to common sense in the truth. End of story feel free to reply if you’d like, but those are the facts above.
The Proof of the Pudding as regards the Israeli intentions in Syria is if they take, and hold land in Syria... In the West Bank there are Settlers chanting from 'Jerusalem-To-Damascus'... Read up on the 'Greater-Israel-Movement'... Syria was/is an essentially Failed State... Wide-Spread Air-Strikes are not helping rebuild any future stable peaceful Government is Syria...
Are you asking me? All you have to do is hit Google and ask that question you’ll get your answer. But as I understand it and not that I agree with it, the group that took over the government of Syria is a terrorist origanization.
America’s Day being the world police should be behind her we have our own problems here that we need to resolve first including homelessness and poverty
If and when an organization that threatens America surfaces in Syria, I’m sure the new administration will take care of it immediately and decisively as it did before
Though signed by 48 of the 58 members of the UN General Assembly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is unfortunately not legally binding in any country. It was a step forward, but aspirational only. As anyone who follows the news knows, human rights are routinely violated in many countries. I do think, perhaps because I am a cockeyed optimist, that progress has been made toward its universal application in the decades since its adoption. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/how-to-define-global-citizen
While aspirational goals are obviously not enough, without having them being clearly enunciated, like in the UDHR, we tend to lose sight of them. How wonderful to learn of Eleanor Roosevelt's role in formulating them! Thank you, Heather, for reminding us of what we have aspired to in the past and to help us regain our commitment to realizing these universal human rights in the future.
The US has been fortunate to have many amazing First Ladies. WIth the exception of Melania, every First Lady in my lifetime honored human rights and worked to help promote one or more of them even after they were no longer living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I cannot resist denigrating Melania as arguably the worst First Lady ever. Has she ever done anything for anyone other than herself and a few members of her family?
Jeanne, I thought about our dilemma immediately. I hope there are plenty of courageous souls out there not only here, but elsewhere. I didn't know it was Human Rights Day either, so I am thankful that Heather has reminded us.
It will certainly be much harder, and perhaps also dangerous, but we might *need* it even more next year. Our government may have withdrawn; I hope the citizens who honor it today will also honor it next year.
This is so powerful. I wish others would see it, the ones who aren't listening. The ones who do not understand the threat to human rights. I cry, reading your words, as the world darkens around us, with venal and terrible people like hungry wolves attacking what they do not value and do not understand.
Until we get an incorruptible SCOTUS and a MSM press of courageous and unbiased journalists… we do not have any transparency for our countries moral compass, and it’s painful to read the words ‘HUMAN RIGHTS’ when 2025 will cage our brown skinned communities and a President with unethical immunity to spend our taxes from our wages to carry out personal revenge.
Without an honorable press - our citizens are not informed that it’s the 40th anniversary of United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT).
Eleanor Rosevelt is one of my sheroes & I am glad to have shared a bit of time on earth with her—tho at 13 yrs old when she passed I was not yet aware of her gifts. Reading today’s Letter about the history and specifics of Human Rights Day and the UDHR, I can only hope that someday it will be fully realized….just as the promise of the USA is aspirational as well. We best keep tryin’ to make it so. ☮️
Gregg, gal is an OK term IMHO….boys, gals…same bucket. Out of curiosity, I looked it up: “ The history of the term "gal" goes back to the Middle English period, where "girl" was originally used to describe a young person of either gender. Over time, the term evolved, and by the 16th century, it began to specifically refer to a young female.”
Thank you, Professor. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs and mankind. I never understand it. It’s so easy to care, to be kind to be compassionate to your fellow man. Human rights and freedom are everything. The brave souls died for it. They are the true heroes of the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt and the UDHR give me hope, even in dark times. They remind me that humanity, at its best, can rise above division and hatred. As America faces an uncertain future, I find solace and strength in these ideals. Human Rights Day is not just a date on the calendar. It is a reminder of who we are and who we can still become.
In these troubled times, may we all find the courage to stand for human rights, as Eleanor Roosevelt did, and ensure that freedom and justice remain not just aspirations, but realities for generations to come.
A well expressed thought, too bad Americans just elected someone who is the antithesis of a leader motivated for justice for all.
Republicans also elected George W. Bush - water boarding and torture advocate!
The difference is that W’s actions, despicable as they were, came as a bad surprise. T’s actions and plans should surprise no one.
'Should' is the key word, eh? But, they have been duped -- and we don't generally blame the victims: they who have been blinded. Those who would blind us have always been -- slaveholders, shady dealmakers, racists, misogynists, fraudsters, killers -- we are always shocked by them and have had to recover from and make up for the egregious consequences of their actions. We will be encumbered by them as long as they are exist as well as their conned and blinded victims. We, nevertheless, will persevere in this age-old struggle.
What actions are those exactly? He’s not president yet. But he will be and we’re very excited about it. And you say encumbered, those that voted for him feel relieved and that 49 out of fifty states we’re not happy with the direction of this country under who knows who and became redder. 49 of 50 states. By the way, basket of deplorable’s didn’t work so well for Hillary.
Mary, W was way over his head, and left the details to his cabinet, thus the resulting wars that crippled us for over 20 years and still reverberate.
Yes, W is way over his head. His only salient feature was that he loved America. For 20 years is ridiculous. You forgot Obama gotten between that Obama was the most divisive and racist president in our history.
Oops. See a Russian bot here!
And worse if necessary.
The election of Donald Trump Trump is a travesty and a slap in the face to everyone aspiring to a better world.
What happened to us that our nation voted for an administration that is literally the antithesis of the UDHR?
And you know that how? Try this let’s see how brave you are Susan Trump administration accomplishments, since he was already president, I think you’ll be shocked to know of all the good things that he did because being here you’ll never hear any of them
I do believe there are many more truly good humans out there than bad. We seem to focus on the latter and this is unfortunate.
All it takes is for good humans to do nothing…
Because the latter are voted the power to do great harm. Trump once again will pull back on America's commitments to things such as the UDHR.
Diane, the bad humans have been plotting for years for this moment. Again, Trump is the useful idiot.
Well said!
Beautifully stated. I agree.🙏
The udhr ? Really? Wow
So well said! Thank you!
I don't think it's always easy, but the consequences of not doing so are dire, and the rewards of doing so appealing.
When platitudes become real. The search for conflict was never so great as that moment in history. It’s unfortunate those folks weren’t around in 2022 when Russia was threatening to invade Ukraine and they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO and we refused even though Ukraine was not ready to join. It’s such a twisted behavior to not have said no NATO. But the West instead chose war. My God. All these wonderful platitudes and we chose war.
Here's what it seems like to me. Putin was kicking himself for not expanding into Ukraine while Trump was in his first term, and would clearly have done nothing to interfere. But the new, untested ex-comedian the Ukrainians elected on an anti-corruption platform seemed to give Putin an opportunity, and I think he misjudged Biden, and thought he would hesitate to step up. So Putin, as I recall, tried a 3 day blitzkrieg style invasion, using the least of his troops. Zelensky rose to the occasion with flair however, famously telling Biden, when offered succor in the US, "The fight is here. I don't need a ride, I need ammunition." The Ukrainians, with thousands of years of experience fighting invaders, responded with alacrity, and Zelensky basically shamed NATO and the West into doing the right thing. Putin's desire to steal Ukranian wheat and seaports is not a good reason to invade a sovereign nation unprovoked. Ukranian desire to avoid the bloodbaths of prior Russian invasions of Ukranian territory is not a plot by "globalists", but a free people's desire to maintain their freedom. Remember how there was all that weird internet stuff about Putin being sick right before the invasion? I wonder where that came from? I hate war, but all Putin needs to do is pull his troops, and North Koreas, back to the borders that existed prior to maybe 2005, and leave the Ukrainians alone. This war is on Putin, no one in the rest of the world wanted Putin to invade Ukraine and no amount of fancy words will make the reality of the situation any different.
This is the correct explanation for Ukraine and Putin. His desire to regain the territory of the former Soviet Union is HIS Issue not the right to reassert power over people who do not want him. The same is true of the people of Gaza or Syria who don't want to be the conquered people of Israel. Human rights indeed.
Thank you. Gaza is a tragedy of monumental proportions. Why don't Palestinians elect some sane educated secular moderate people to lead them? Fundamentalists and criminals never make good leaders.
And why don't the Israelis put Netanyahu in jail where he belongs and elect some honest politicians?
And why don’t WE put Trump in jail and elect some honest politicians???
Some think that there is a flaw with the Jihadist Islam that makes them want to convert or kill. Hamas's (are Jihadiists) only goal is to eliminate Israel, how does one negotiate with that? Corrected
Because Netanyahu has kept Israel free that’s why. And it’s amazing that people are willing to post here out of their ignorance about what goes on in Israel and what the political landscape is there.
You are completely correct. Instead, they chose to elect Hamas to govern them and paid the price.
Careful with your thoughts and words here - look at what we just did - with significant portions of America's electorate sitting on their hands and butts!
Some very rich men spent hundreds of millions of dollars that we know about, plus who knows how much more that we don't, to bamboozle a good portion of the electorate into voting against their own interests. It's now clear that he did not get 50% of the votes, and with every one of the mob-boss loyalty tested cabinet picks he announces, I ask my friends that voted for him if this is what they thought they were getting. It's getting harder for them to justify their choice. We all need to speak up more. I do know one really really devout liberal person who kept assuring me there was no difference between Trump and Harris. I keep asking him if Harris would be making these choices. He's starting to see the light, so to speak.
Not what happened. AT ALL.
Could we bring that closer to home? Change Palestinians to Americans and reread your post. And didn't we say the same thing while first Americans were resisting genocide?
I think Biden made a big mistake thinking that Netanyahu would actually take the Palestinians into account, but you have to blame the Iranian Ayatollah as much as Biden if you want to pretend that Netanyahu and Hamas are just puppets, don't you? Yahya Sinwar (sp? Sorry) and Benjamin Netanyahu are similar creatures, willing to let thousands of Palestinians die while they seek to gain ground and stay out of jail.
I hope the Syrian newly moderate and improved Al-quidah guy means what he says, and works with secular Syrian Arabs, Christian and Kurdish factions to restore Syria to it's old status as a center of learning and leadership for the entire Middle East!
Hey Carol, FYI, the United Nations themselves gave Israel a slice of land a sliver of land which they turned into a Mecca of scientific and medical research that has helped the planet while the Arab communities have a land the size of the United States and have done nothing but try to destroy Israel. The problem was that the Palestinians decided to turn over their billions of dollars of income to Hamas and the outcome is what you’re seeing right now. They could’ve used the money to build infrastructure like water plants and electrical plants but they chose to buy weapons instead.
Exactly. Putin made clear what he wanted in Helsinki. One reason chump tried to “win” in 2020. Vlad just had to wait until he could meddle enough to get his puppet reinstalled.
Incorrect Putin did in vain because he knew he’d get his ass kicked and by the way do you know why he is able to enter Ukraine because of something Bill Clinton did back in the mid 90s let’s see how good it research and history you are otherwise Russia would’ve done nothing in Ukraine
Mistakes have been made by all sorts of people all around the globe. Obama should have done this or that, Clinton should have done this or that. In the end,Putin the wannabe restorer of Soviet glory, desiring Ukrainian wheat fields and seaports, massed an army on the Ukrainian border and tried a shock and awe type invasion, but he used untrained and uncommitted conscript troops and outdated and often barely working machinery, which was no match for a bunch of Ukrainian farmers thinking, " Not my farm, not this time, a**holes," who put up a spirited resistance, which the world got to watch, and many of the Russian troops were clearly unprepared for. I know people who fled Ukraine, but then went back for their elders, their property and their country. Modern Americans have never had to fight invaders, so thus will to fight is a little theoretical. For everyday Ukrainians it not about global political balance, it's their lives. And stories they remember being told about prior invasions.
Would I have been pointing out to a few people that are willing to listen? Is it back in the mid 90s? Bill Clinton made a big mistake could’ve been made by any president, but it was made by him. He struck a deal with Poland to remove their nuclear weapons pointed at Russia. First, then came crimea and now Ukraine. Not to mention that NATO has not stepped up like they should have And now they’re just waking up
If my prediction is correct, the Russian Ukraine conflict will be resolved by Ukraine surrendering probably a portion of land to Russia and thereby having an agreement. Which will save a half 1 million lives, Icountless cities, destroyed, and peace once again at least for now.
America has spent over $200 billion on this repeat of Vietnam. The only difference being it’s not our troops that are dying. It’s the 60,000 Ukrainians and hundreds of thousands of Russians that have already died and have their cities destroyed for what ? There has to be a settlement and it will soon come I believe. It may not be a fair settlement to many people‘s minds, but it will stop the bloodshed and the loss of life.
NATO should’ve stepped up in America should’ve stayed out of it and we have hundreds of thousands of homeless on the streets and poverty, and that money could’ve gone a long way into helping these two problems in America for starters
Bill, NATO is a (mostly) defensive pact. Sure NATO bombed Yugoslavia back in the Clinton days for its misbehavior, but has never taken territory from anyone by force, let alone from Russia by force or any other manner such as "annexation" that Putin is so fond of.
And so it is a beyond a stretch to blame NATO for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Do you really think if NATO did not exist that Russia would just sit back and say "we are comfortable within our borders"?
Bill mistakes have been made by all sorts of idiot politicians in both sides in the past. We all need to learn from those mistakes, rather than using them as justification for making more, don't we? Right now Ukraine is fighting to maintain its sovereignty and freedom. Do you honestly think they should stop wanting sovereignty and freedom? Putin started it, the NATO countries see that if he is allowed to run over Ukraine, then it's going to cost more lives and treasure to stop him at some other border and so they have chosen sides and are helping Ukraine. Which side are you on?
You don’t have a good grasp of recent history. The US was heavily involved in the Ukrainian revolution of 2013 which kicked out a pro Russian government. What would we do if a hostile government assisted in overthrowing hum… Panama? Not a great example but we have always invaded to make sure a friendly government was in place. Can you recall Granada?
And btw, I’m not in anyway supportive of Russian behavior. But outright massive was very likely would have or could have been avoided.
Bill, you need to read Prof. Timothy Snyder's lectures at Yale in the fall of 2022 when he gave a course on the History of Ukraine. They are available on YouTube for free.
There are 23 lectures in all. You will learn a lot. .
Informative and enjoyable.
I’m sure he a brilliant but I read once his 15 reasons and I plainly felt the reasons he expressed were easily contradicted. Please have Professor Snyder give me a call some time.
Have we invaded Ukraine? News to me.
Please define "heavily involved."
Hardly the only reason Russia invaded Ukraine.. they're still pissed about the fall of the USSR and view expansion as necessary to regain their control.
Once again Putin's personal depressed emotional neuroses, is not actually an appropriate response to Ukrainians reclaiming their freedom after the fall of the Soviet Union. Only an immature,narcissistic, slightly delusional man thinks, "I want it, so I should have it, and to hell with what anyone else thinks!" Unfortunately, this one has a lot of power to indulge his fantasies, at his disposal, and he has killed around 50,000 Ukrainians and 150,000 Russian troops trying to act out this fantasy. We need the adults in the room to step up and say, "Enough is enough," and put this guy in a time out to think about his choices, you know?
Just a bit reductionist don’t you think?
Really? I would say Putin's mental state is pretty central to his impaired decision making process. What do you think is more central?
I have argued this issue here before laying out why Ukraine is within the orbit of Russia like nations close to the US have been invaded by us to insure a friendly government. Same as…
Many posters here are so very intolerant of other points of view. And when it comes to avoiding war, we never learn from past mistakes. Never. We either invade or assassinated others. The biggest mistake we made was assassinating the civilian leader of Iran and installing the Shaw ( misspelled) and look how far that has gone? We continually destabilize. The Middle East (and its conflicts and wars) is our fault.
IT is not helpful to breast beat ourselves for past mistakes to the detriment of awareness of the current situation and how to handle the present
I am intolerant of criminals, autocrats or fundamentalists of any persuasion-Islamists, Christians, Hindus or what have you, taking political control of people they want to take advantage of. Very intolerant!
Bitching moment today?
Yep, everyone has their moments. When I was 4 years old I watched my evangelical aunt, the one who saw angels hovering around my mother's head, beating her 3 year old daughter with a metal spatula, rhythmically, screaming,God's making me do this, God's making me do this" and I did not do everything I could to stop her. I ceased believing in Christianity, and I developed my hatred of bullies in that moment, and I have spent most of my life trying to help people to make up for that failure on my part. I was scared and I did not speak up. Now, any time someone says some version of "Xxx (higher power-God, Allah,Shiva, my own f***ing criminal desire to take advantage of you for my own gain), is telling that I can do something that will hurt you," I am very intolerant of that. And I am suspicious of people who claim they don't see that thought process at work, since it is so glaringly obvious to me. So, what does it seem like to you?
Is that all you can say? Trifle
lol Bill, i did say more elsewhere.
Lord Acton: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I see now. Thank you. So Russia is justified in its invasion of Ukraine “to insure a friendly government.” Got it.
Who said that? Not I. The first president of Russia mistaked and placed in position a future mad man dictator. Russia came close to becoming a modern day republic. I simply have made a case for no good options but better to avoid out right war and all the unintended consequences of it. But our past mistakes are never learned. At this point I say bomb the frick out of Russia. I don’t care. But outright war could have been avoided for one brief moment.
History is littered with the sad stories of people who chose appeasement first instead of standing up for themselves.
Putin wants to restore all the territory lost when the old USSR collapsed, and even more if he thinks he can get away with it. Ukraine is fighting not just for itself, but for the entire West. If Putin had to call in the North Koreans, Russia is in worse shape than he lets on.
Pax, they also wanted access to Ukraine's expanding oil reserves in the Black Sea.
Bill, "they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO". "Only"??? Nonsense.
While some "platitude" of that nature might have delayed slightly Putin's push into Europe, it would hardly have stopped Putin the psychopath in his pursuit of resurrecting the Russian Empire. You really could benefit from some research into who Putin is, how his world view was formed. Putin is Stalin resurrected.
Your assumption that Putin would have been satisfied with some "no Nato" reassurance is based on what? Putin is just a peaceful dude who felt "threatened" by Ukraine? Please dig a little deeper and you will find a monster. Your assumption that he can be pacified is as naive as that of Neville Chamberlain saying he had found "Peace for our time" after signing the Munich agreement with Hitler in 1938.
Experts in international affairs have told us for decades that Putin only responds to and only respects force. Obama should have bolstered efforts to reclaim Crimea when it was stolen on his watch. We should have applied massive sanctions, sent weapons and provided intelligence to Ukraine to enable them to stand strong against a murderer.
Putin has crippled Russia's economy by inviting our punishing sanctions. His oligarchs (the ones who still live in Russia) are warning of bankruptcies. Interest rates are 9% and making no headway in reducing inflation of 21%! Putin is wobbling or he would have easily supported Assad's government. I see a brutal spiral dive for this putz unless Trump bails him out. We should prepare for such a treason.
Biden has been brilliant in his handling of the Russian war on Ukraine. What is about to happen in January may make Chamberlain look like a genius.
I agree 100% with every piece of your argument, especially the comparison with Chamberlain's traitorous stance of appeasement. Obama's failure to act immediately when Putin took Crimea was a huge error, one which bolstered Putin's confidence in taking more, and one that I don't think Biden would have made. Putin ONLY responds to strength. Just say 'no NATO' is absurd and dangerous, and one that I'm afraid Trump will agree to without a second thought. I wish NATO had the votes and the courage to get it done before January 20th. Sweden and Finland were right and smart to work quickly to secure membership. Putin is like Pacman gobbling up everything in his way.
No Biden was not brilliant just ok. He didn’t allow rockets to extend far enough into Russia and now Ukraine is playing catch up.
Yeah, "they/we" should have given Zelensky and the first genius general he had everything they asked for immediately and things would different over there now.
Bill, spot on!!!
Oh, thank you.
All they wanted was assurance that Ukraine would not join NATO? I guess you believe Putin. Putin wanted Ukraine PERIOD!!! NATO was just an excuse.
In 10 years Putin will be dead. So what was the rush.
And Bill, do you really believe that assuring Russia NATO would not admit Ukraine would have stopped his invasion of Ukraine?!! Assuming NATO had taken that step it would seem remarkably similar to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich agreement with Hitler. Given that Russia was an original abstainer from the UN’s UDHR it seemed far more likely that Russia could then proceed with its invasion without any legal basis for other countries to provide help to Ukraine in repelling that invasion. What legal basis would there have been to provide support for Ukraine? The aspirational UDHR declaration of principles?
The West did not choose war, Russia did.
Basically a continuing independence movement by Ukrainians, Bill, began long before 1991. The Russians had choices, they chose conquest based imperialism based on Russian irredentist nationalism.
Just like we do. Read American history. Dominant countries dominate. I took a course once in Russian history taught by a former Hungarian general who fought in the 1956 rebellion against the Soviets. And Dr. Dici was right. Smoking camels and teaching Russian history do go together. And you should have seen him the way he held his cigarette.
Bill, to me, those who say we should have denied a path to future NATO membership for Ukraine to appease Russia after Russia invaded Crimea are missing the point and blaming the victim. I say to that, "Nonsese!".
Russia demanding such a concession was pure bullying. Rational analyses determined that Putin wasn't that crazy, and that an a priori guarantee of no-NATO for Ukraine by a rule-based society in which promises and treaties matter pointed towards not promising Putin anything. That analysis was wrong in the first conclusion (Putin was crazy) and was and remains correct on the second conclusion.
To repeat, Russia invaded and occupied Ukraine's Crimea. After that, Zekensky was elected on an anti-corruption platform, but also a nationalist agenda to keep Ukraine strong. Part of that is to join the European Union which required non-corruot government institutions and to join NATO, which would be a protection against further invasion. Putin invaded because he saw Zekensky and Ukraine making progress on the first. Ukraine had also just discovered oil reserves in the Black Sea, which if developed would give it the financial strength to build up its military and support the financial commitments towards defense required by NATO.
(Trump should have supported Ukraine's oil exploration aspirations which ultimately would have strengthened NATO and reduced the risk of American involvement in a hot war in Europe. Instead, he tried to strong-arm Zelensky into throwing doubt about a perceived future political opponent, Joe Biden.)
Are you saying that the war in Ukraine was due solely to the U.S. saying no to Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO? I find that hard to believe.
NATO was just Putin's political excuse. He wants control of Ukraine's fertile agricultural land and those seaports. It's not that complicated.
Good point Bill and exactly what Trump was trying to avoid, and if you were in office as you saw when he was in office, none of this occurred.
While I applaud the UN resolution, I have disappointed with their lack of enforcing power. Please list me what UN has done to help Ukraine?
Wonderful that there is a "human rights" day, but simultaneously heartbreaking that this has to be singled out for a special acknowledgement - shouldn't every single day be such a day to celebrate equality for all? Another great history lesson from the Professor! With all my gratitude for keeping me sane since I signed up for this "class".
A compelling essay on something we can not afford to take for granted, particularly when it comes to the too many little ones suffering without cause, often without pause. https://youtu.be/yN4Uu0OlmTg 😢
Mrs Roosevelt took her lead, and expanded it, from the four freedoms speech given by her late late husband seven years earlier. https://youtu.be/qrNDwyj4u1w 🙏
President Carter took his human rights cue from Mrs Roosevelt; the successor who unseated him could not eradicate that legacy. https://youtu.be/BdnH1BlB1r0 ⚖️
Today, I ask G-D to bless President Biden and Vice President Harris and that G-D thank the former. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7259852498906025984/ 💔
I am OK with special days to focus on essential goals, but yes, that's just a small part of how we can improve and preserve liberty and justice for all. That's pretty muddled at the present, but must not be lost sight of. It's a practice, is it not, individually and it concert. Somehow it is always a struggle.
💔 They included “the right to a standard of living adequate for…health and well-being…, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond [one’s] control.”
Isn't it time to raise the Federal minimum wage to at least $15 and hour AND attach a COLA to the rate?
$7.25 an hour is ridiculous, yet 1.6 million Americans are paid this rate as of 2019.
Each state is empowered to embrace the minimum wage in their state. Just as Missouri did recently but some as states do not even embrace the federal minimum. .I believe Georgia Louisiana and Mississippi are those states.
It's a big reason why Harris lost - she never mentioned it to my knowledge.
NMP (not my President) didn’t mention the minimum wage either. And yet he won.
Harris did mention it while 😡dodged the question. In his recent Meet The Press interview/ramble he said he would consider but would need to speak with governors first…..and we know how that translates!
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/01/nx-s1-5173819/2024-election-trump-harris-workers-overtime-wages
Ok cool. I did watch many rallies but must of missed it. Not talking about overtime pay but base pay which should be $25 per hour these days. Of course the felon rapist won’t do anything.
I am sure there were many reasons for the Vice President's defeat.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7259852498906025984/
So far out of touch was I that I might as well have been living on Mars.
https://youtu.be/VwoHnmUihGY
These days I take solace in my fave tunes to sit still and think stiller.
Lauren, exactly. I am also in her ‘history class’. Yesterday, I joined the shop-for Christmas crowd in a place quite far from home. First went to Target. I’d never been. Huge! Overwhelming. We asked a woman for directions, and she not only answered but actually led us toward the precise spot. A woman of color, she was friendly, caring and I thought a beauty. Then I met two other people where I found the gift: a young woman carrying a small basket type ball who answered my questions as we chatted about playing basketball, others joining in, then a man from Ghana who brought out the gift I bought. His smile lit up the store.
As we left that area, we all wished each other a peaceful holiday; I said to my shopping pal, “Isn’t this the best? Meeting those three amazing people much are more important than the gift?” Every day fir me is human rights day.
Lauren Dunlap,
With Trump and his minions in leadership roles here and throughout the world, we may come to appreciate a Human Rights Day more than we ever imagined.
so sad, yet likely very true...
Absolutely, every day should embody the principles of equality, dignity, and respect for all. Human rights are universal and timeless, and while a designated day helps raise awareness and inspire action, the values it represents should guide us every day.
I apologize for posting this multiple times, but it just seems so relevant:
"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men (sic), in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
Though it's been said, many times, many ways. Past world wars and many other atrocities testify to why it's a lesson we can never afford to forget. Hurray for those who help us keep that focus.
Interesting to see Romania's reaction to extensive Russian interference in their election after the social media driven success of a pro - Putin candidate .
They exposed the details and their Supreme Court annulled the election.
Way to go Europe! We're on our own now.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/09/the-guardian-view-on-romanias-annulled-election-a-wake-up-call-for-democracies
So Christopher, Rumania, South Korea and the Republic of Georgia are sowing us how to fight for democracy, the rule of law and human rights?
What a contrast between them and us....🫣
"The genius of your own independence" That is a wonderful way to express the idea of freedom!
Regardless of the circumstances, if we encourage that "genius" in every person we encounter and ask only that they pay it forward & do the same, one day the dream WILL come true. It's something everyone can do; a contribution we can all make, and it doesn't require wealth, political clout, a louder voice, or coercive power - just steadiness of purpose.
And some measure of empathy and self-discipline. We cant maintain a truly free country without that. What Joseph Welch (who interrogated Joe McCarthy) called "decency"?
Good passage there, J.L. From Baron Montesquieu: "The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles." https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7259852498906025984 (1st comment)
JL Graham,
You could not publish these wonderful words too much. We need to read the words you shared often as well as the words on The Statue of Liberty. We need to live out these words with all who live in our country. We are to be a LIGHT in this world.
We are here to offer the HOPE that has been encouraged by the dear regular citizenry who came before us and who humbly worked and served those in need.
Eleanor Roosevelt was one of great character. She always looked beyond herself. Her presence within the United Nations allowed her even greater opportunity to meet the needs of others...to build up peace instead of war, here and throughout the world.
So simply put I enjoy each phrase. Lincoln must have been awe-inspiring to work alongside.
Nicely written. Well thought out. Thank you!
Women in the U.S. no longer have a guaranteed right to medical care when pregnant, therefore they have no right to life.
But where were your millions of daughters on Election Day?
"Where were your million of WHITE daughters on Election Day?" There I fixed it for you.
A woman voting for Trump (or any Republican) is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. (Old joke of unknown origin).
I once had a pet rooster in childhood and I named him Harry after my Uncle Harry. Leave my chickens alone. I’m guilty enough having to buy 25 pounds of chicken thighs to make cat food for my demanding cats.
Kitty! Kitties!
Fabrication. Nothing has changed. Now, rather than in the hands of the government, you hate it’s in the hands of the voters
Putin’s fan boy sounds off again, and again as usual wrong. It is the Republican six on the Supreme Court that revoked, for the first and so far only time in American history, a recognized right: That of women to decide their own reproductive freedom, balanced of course with the potential viability of the fetus outside the potential mother’s body.
Constitutional rights should not be subject to a vote of the people, Dred Scott notwithstanding, in which the Supreme Court held Blacks have "No Rights Which the White Man was Bound to Respect".
Ed, wish I could “presto-changeo” morph Rick into a young female living in a state with severe restrictive reproduction laws. He needs to proverbially “walk a mile” in another’s shoes to get some perspective (and who knows, he might learn a lot!). Alas, that would be too cruel….
All you'd have to do is change "his" algorithm, "rick" is not human, "he" is a Russian bot. Please ignore it.
Too true…that said, bad-boy-bot rick-the-ick should be sent to the cyber corner wearing a AI generated dunce cap w/o any amps for dinner….🤪
So Steve, that’s pretty incredible that you can change my algorithm. I happen to voice text everything and so you can determine or try to twist my post to whatever you like, but I am a human being first generation American that loves this country. Feel free to deny or refute anything I say.
You may not be a bot, but you are certainly a troll, whose posts often seem to come off as pro-Putin.
A troll is “a person who intentionally antagonizes others online by posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content. Internet trolls. In the late 1980s, Internet users adopted the word "troll" to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities.”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/troll#:~:text=%3A%20a%20person%20who%20intentionally%20antagonizes,who%20intentionally%20disrupts%20online%20communities.
Rick is not a "boy" at all, you are conversing with a Russian bot.
I understand and do not for a second think my posts will change he/she/its position. My replies are intended to provide an alternative view for other more open minded readers to consider.
Rick Sender - you're a troll. Crawl back under the rock from whence you came.
Rick is is an electronic troll aka a Russian bot. Please ignore it.
Psychologists would recognize your, Rick’s, post as projection.
Well well well . . . look what the cat dragged in . . . .
🙄
How you can make such a statement is mind boggling! How do you account for the state of Missouri whose voters put abortion/reproductive rights on their state ballot to be enshrined in their state constitution and won yet the MAGA GOP state legislature is trying their best to overturn the VOTERS voice? Explain how the voters are in control again, please.
Well, good luck with that. Let me know when it happens… that their abortion rights are overturned. Every piece of news I read is that the voters approved Measure three which overturned the legislatures original posture on abortion rights once again, prognosticating about what might happen…
Recently Jessie Waters asserted that Human Rights Watch was “probably the one organization that wants to tear western civilization down —pillars by pillar.” This in response to the Sarah McBride bathroom spectacle. One of my favorite quotes about the importance of the human rights endeavors is Eleanor Roosevelt’s:
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
I am curious. Why quote him? I have a rule of not repeating hatred.
It is just to highlight this vitriolic attitude towards the world view that embraces these values …not unlike the backlash against environmental standards as somehow unAmerican. Another quote of Eleanor’s that meets the Waters comment in this circumstance: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
But Barbara I don’t think we can ignore the rhetoric used by people like Waters, Stephen Miller, and other MAGAs because like it or not this is the kind of bate click that is amplified million fold via social media algorithms. And, to bring it back around to Eleanor’s small places quote, we have to engage with citizens in the books and crannies of their lives if we are going to win the battle for their hearts and minds, making real the great ideas behind sweeping principles like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But we already know how he is. My larger point is this. Are we spreading their hatred when we repeat what they say? The media never stops repeating all the awful things said because it has the scintillating cash value of watching a car wreck.
It just seems that if we are to spread the messages outlined in Dr. Richardson's Letter today, we could do better repeating those ideals over and over and work to overwhelm the evil words by simply not speaking them.
I agree with this perspective Barbara…I would not lead with this type of juxtaposition if I had a bully pulpit from which to address the general public. I use the comments here often to vent and to discuss on the sidelines. I will add though that I think we have to look hard at the possible necessity of actually framing the contest between progressive values and policies and the politics that just ‘won’ the US election as a fight against and not just for. I have taken a deep dive into some of the thinking about how to engage people in the democratic process and people like Josh Lerner at People Powered have made a case for including this kind of direct confrontation of ideas and values as part of the struggle. His is not the only voice on this score. I think our current moment in a global level is oppositional in the balance of power between a truly democratic form of government that embraces human rights and demands human responsibility and the autocratic/oligarch each-to—their-own, strong eat the weak nihilism that is Putin, Orban, Xi, Kim, et Al. Only 8 percent of the world population lives under a full democracy. As Harris might put it we hoping to turn the tide are the underdogs. And making a case for change requires a clear articulation of what you think is wrong about the other options’ messaging and intentions.
Venting is needed. If venting is all someone does, then we have the situation of people living in the problem. Direct confrontation is great. Giving undue airtime to what the opposition is saying and doing is counterproductive. Remember the cardinal rule of authoritarians: repeat it enough and people will start to believe it.
So what we have here is a matter of balance. And intent.
I am struck by the historic language of principles set against the recently elected segment that would undermine those same principles in the name of religion, capitalism, and American White Supremacy.
Anne Applebaum wrote how the foundations of autocracy are an interconnected global phenomenon:
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/23/nx-s1-5049021/expert-on-dictators-warns-dont-lose-hope-thats-what-they-want
I'm just now reading Anne Applebaum's book and I recommend it for everyone. Like HCR, she is another brilliant woman whose writing "keeps our eyes on the prize." To me, the most important message is that we band together and demand transparency from our government and institutions. Right now, the kleptocracy is getting away with murder.
Absolutely agree; Anne is brilliant.
Last night, I listened to a piece about how the Murdoch family are infighting and it brought joy to my heart. Lachlan, Rupert’s mini-me, is the heir-apparent to Fox mudding up facts. His siblings are in total disagreement of how it should be run after Rupert’s demise. It is “Succession” being played out in real time. Truly, Rupert is a Putin ally because Fox wanted (wants) to become THE state tv station of America. They already won the propaganda field of reporting, although they were successfully sued by Dominion. OAN is even revamping news because quite frankly, even their audiences are dropping off like flies. It’s a pleasure to hear, Ellie.
Tell your story about white supremacy to Barack Hussein, Obama.
I think the election of Trump was a more or less direct backlash reaction to our first black president, Barack Obama.
Trump is riding a wave of White Supremacy, White Nationalism, and Christian Nationalist fervor currently infecting the American body politic. Many whites simply couldn’t abide a black man in the White House.
“In the emails, [Stephen] Miller, an adviser to the Trump campaign at the time, advocated many of the most extreme white supremacist concepts. These included the “great replacement” theory, fears of white genocide through immigration, race science, and eugenics; he also linked immigrants with crime, glorified the Confederacy, and promoted the genocidal book, The Camp of the Saints, as a roadmap for U.S. policy.”
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/white-supremacy-returned-mainstream-politics/
Some WHITE people couldn’t stand even the thought of a BLACK man occupying the WHITE house that BLACK men built. Will we ever get over what slavery did to this country?
Francine fein,
To choose to treat any human being as "less than" is a human sickness each of us must fight against....no matter the color of one's skin.
I thank God for each and every soul who has recognized hatred or prejudice within themselves and who have chosen to fight against this soul
destroying human problem.
It takes each and all of us to choose to build up or to tear down, to control, or to appreciate our various strengths and gifts, our beautiful humanity....and in doing so to work together to accomplish great things.
I wish prejudice did not exist.
As Pax Linson stated, it is not only the color of ones sin, but also personal life choices. How much better just to love one another and stop looking for ways to put someone else down in order to lift ourselves up!!!
Francine, you ask a critical question, “ Will we ever get over what slavery did to this country?”
No, sadly and tragically I don’t think so. The Bible posits that humanity is stained by Original Sin.
America, for as wonderful and transformative as its goal and promise is, and it is, is stained by two original sins: Slavery and our treatment of indigenous peoples, aka Native Americans.
Individual people can strive to conduct themselves by the Golden Rule, the King James Version of the Bible which reads
Matthew 7:12.
"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets"
Addressing America’s dual original sins is more problematic and challenging, especially given our federal system of distributed powers, and the fact that America is a complex multicultural milieu of often contradictory views.
The reality on the ground is described well by Colin Woodard in his book, American Character A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty & the Common Good.
“The author of American Nations examines the history of and solutions to the key American question: how best to reconcile individual liberty with the maintenance of a free society
The struggle between individual rights and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of nearly every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agendas of the Federalists, the Progressives, the New Dealers, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party. In American Character, Colin Woodard traces these two key strands in American politics through the four centuries of the nation s existence, from the first colonies through the Gilded Age, Great Depression and the present day, and he explores how different regions of the country have successfully or disastrously accommodated them. The independent streak found its most pernicious form in the antebellum South but was balanced in the Gilded Age by communitarian reform efforts; the New Deal was an example of a successful coalition between communitarian-minded Eastern elites and Southerners.
Woodard argues that maintaining a liberal democracy, a society where mass human freedom is possible, requires finding a balance between protecting individual liberty and nurturing a free society. Going to either libertarian or collectivist extremes results in tyranny. But where does the sweet spot lie in the United States, a federation of disparate regional cultures that have always strongly disagreed on these issues? Woodard leads readers on a riveting and revealing journey through four centuries of struggle, experimentation, successes and failures to provide an answer. His historically informed and pragmatic suggestions on how to achieve this balance and break the nation s political deadlock will be of interest to anyone who cares about the current American predicament political, ideological, and sociological.”
In his book American Nations, Woodard argues persuasively that while America is one country it is comprised of 11 geographically more or less distinct nations with very different value systems. The situation is further complicated by the urban rural divide which smudges the overall geographical patterns.
https://www.powells.com/book/american-character-a-history-of-the-epic-struggle-between-individual-liberty-the-common-good-9780143110002
Thank you. I will check out the book.
You’re welcome. Phillips devotes one chapter in American Character to describing the different nations that comprise this one country.
In it he uses an approach pioneered by Kevin Phillips, which is to follow the characteristics and migration patterns of groups of people, which he pioneered in The Emerging Republican Majority, published in 1969, but given earlier to Richard Nixon, and in which Phillips developed the explicitly racist Southern Strategy.
He eventually came to regret his connection to and influence on Nixon and America. He later wrote American Theocracy, in which he noted that the one southern institution that survived the Civil War and Reconstruction and which served as a vital refuge for Southern Planter Class, and those who approved of enslaving Blacks was the Southern Baptist Convention or Church.
Other Protestant denominations like Methodists and Lutherans abandoned their north-south divisions. Southern Baptist congregations are now found across the whole country.
https://www.npr.org/2013/11/11/244527860/forget-the-50-states-u-s-is-really-11-nations-says-author
Yes to the backlash..I would add LGBTQ rights to the cause.
The backlash is described in part by the old “Kiss up, kick down” phenomenon.
Sadly for them transsexuals are the newest low rung on that sorry ladder.
Bashing Blacks went out of style in the 20th century Civil Rights era, so homosexuals became the next target. But too many politicians turned out to have gay or lesbian family members, so that lost favor as a convenient scapegoat of the right, so the crosshairs turned to transsexuals.
Their existence evokes a eeewww response from many who do not personally know any trans folks, and they are in sufficiently low frequency in the population to be the right’s convenient scapegoat du jour.
Well said, Ed, but please stop feeding the bot. That is what Rick Sender is.
Ed, all that you mention was present in 2020. There is certainly a part of the electorate that this applies to, but we will never change their minds. There was more to it this time, legions of "normies", women, people of color moved towards trump. Those people wanted change and were willing to swallow the bitter orange pill and vote for trump. We need to speak to those people if we want to win next time.
“American company, Russian propaganda: New Kremlin tactic reveals escalating effort to sway US vote
…
Attorney General Merrick Garland, center, speaks before a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Washington, with from left, Deputy Attorney General, Criminal Division, Nicole Argentieri, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, Matthew Olsen. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has long sought to inject disinformation into U.S. political discourse. Now, it’s got a new angle: paying Americans to do the work.
This week’s indictment of two Russian state media employees on charges that they paid a Tennessee company to create pro-Russian content has renewed concerns about foreign meddling in the November election while revealing the Kremlin’s latest tactic in a growing information war.”
https://apnews.com/article/russia-trump-harris-putin-election-disinformation-13b15fcd42e52d77c22454c223e85b95
Your hateful racist outlook is indicated by how you named President Obama.
I don’t recall you ever writing Donald John Trump.
Thank you for this great letter, Heather! Such an inspiring document. 💜
Thank you for reminding us of our responsibilities in standing up and caring for everyone. Human rights are precious and should always be upheld. ❤️
TY HCR. This is such an important Letter. I learned so much as i always do. I imagine Commander Kirk reading this from the Starship Enterprise. UDHR. Colonialism destroyed so much.
Interesting how South Africa abstained from voting. Both Musk and Thiel spent formative years in South Africa.
Declarations against torture, for human rights -- remind us of Syria freed now.
Syria’s 20 million people were already divided by sects. Assad exploited that, every bit as Orban did Hungarian xenophobia, and Trump exploited U.S. racism.
We have much to celebrate, with the Syrians, but many more cautionary tales around the world.
Following release from Assad’s vicious regime, Syrians know democracy may help them manage their religious and tribal sectarianism. Is the U.S. helping? How many readers of Heather on these anniversaries of human rights and against torture can cite any signs of the U.S. sponsoring any school programs so Syrians -- or anybody -- may see each other as individuals, rather than units replicating sectarian and other stereotypes?
Answer is, nobody can cite any such U.S. programs. Americans can’t lead or model any such because of how, since the Powell memo of 1971, that memo's far-right foundations let Americans follow Mao’s “cultural revolution” in China by perverting education – first by killing humanities, then substituting instead all the abstracting and categorizing of standardized tests.
Could Americans restore school humanities? The behavior of Dems in recent national elections says no. Dems had zero messaging for the humane aspects of Biden administration successes, because no Dems had any grounding in any of the arts in touch with the damaged American working classes.
Celebrate anniversaries against torture and for human rights? A bit hollow, when not accompanied by practical programs enlisting good teachers and schools.
I agree that some manner of humanities instruction is essential, but I would include some sort of theory and guidance of social interaction, from improving personal communication skills to how to justly manage societal conflicts. It's not like we don't ever address this at all, but I'm thinking about exploring skills to keep to keep the peace. Education, in my view, gives us tools to live and experience a successful life. That includes creating all the stuff the Constitution's preamble sets out as national goals.
It has been said that Hitler exploited the resentment of bad treatment of Germans after WWI. How much kinder and strategic to our national interests was the Marshall Plan in the wake of WWII?
As a former professor of Applied Communication, I can’t stress enough the importance of interpersonal communication skills. They can be learned and improved upon. It does require some self introspection, which many are uncomfortable with.
Now that Footage of the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza is starting to Leak-Out into the MSM, the Reality of the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza is becoming evident... The U.N. has been rendered powerless by the Netanyahu Gov't... Speaking of Syria haven't the Israelis conducted extensive Air-Strikes, seized Territory in Southern Syria? Indeed the USA has conducted extensive Air Strikes as well... These actions undermine the Relevance of the intent of the U.N. Charter... Both Israel, and the USA are members of the U.N. ... Indeed DJT has nominated Elise Stefanik as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. ... What A Far Cry From Eleanor Roosevelt.. The last time I saw the U.N. Secretary-General in the MSM, António Guterres seemed like a Tragic Figure who knew that the U.N's time has passed...
BUN are now a gang of Jew haters. That’s OK with you. Please continue to support them. Israel is an independent nation given cell by the UN in 1948. It is about the size of Rhode Island. Arab nations are the size of the United States.
Israel is not on the office it is always on the defense.
Lebanon is smaller than Israel, so is Gaza... None of the Arab Nations are the size of the U.S. ... Netanyahu has proclaimed that the Golan Heights is part of Israel now... That is not Defense, that is a Land Grab... I don't see how that leads to Peace in the Future, unless it is the 'Peace Of The Graveyard' that You Want...
Apache, Rick is a bot. Please ignore him/it.
That defense is called denial and it won’t help you change the subject and it won’t help you change reality. I posted to someone else earlier today that apparently a number of people now have a disease called RDDS in an addition to TDS. Russian disinformation derrangement syndrome. It’s very easy for you to deny reality by calling someone or something about than to actually learning something here.
Very very soon I’m sure they’ll be some big pharmaceutical company that will come out with some medication to deal with your affliction
Israel lies as usual. It is all the time on the offensive but their lies give comfort to those who’ve swallowed the idea of Israelis always good, Palestinians always bad.
I choke, listening to BBC News about the Israeli air strikes in Syria.
Anne-Louise Luccarini,
Netanyahu is a criminal supported by the US because he is of the Jewish faith. A faith does NOT make anyone holy!!! People of the Jewish faith...as of any faith or no faith live all over this planet.
We Americans, have destroyed the Indians and pushed them into terrible locations for the most part. We too have our share of blood on our hands. We fought one another in the civil war and many are still divided in our personal identity rather than just being "Americans!"
Popes have lead wars as well as many other so called leaders of faith.
To live out ones faith is a choice, it is not easy to choose to do something good for someone else when it means "not getting OUR way". It is easy to use "well meaning " humans to HATE....yes Hate ones fellowman. We are participating in building up "hate" and "revenge"!
WHERE ARE THE HOSTAGES??? ....AT LEAST WHERE ARE THE BODIES OF THE HOSTAGES???? FAMILIES ARE WAITING!!!
Netanyahu is using the US to obtain weapons of mass destruction to kill regular human beings who are trying to feed their children and take them to school and have a normal home and family. We are guilty! We have blood on our hands!!! We are tearing people down NOT building up. Netanyahu is expanding the destruction of the territory of those who live in the middle east.
Netanyahu says ..."the criminals are hiding somewhere in these buildings....these homes" and WE are joining in as we destroy homes, schools, businesses...the future of regular people.
How is this helping to build up our world family????
I say the only one benefiting is Netanyahu!!!! He brings no honor to the great Jewish faith or to Israel.
I pray for those in Syria who want freedom to build up a government for the people. I am concerned that Russia may try to intervene.
We need wise and strong leadership in our government....where will it be found????
Wow, well sorry but I’m gonna give you a PRIMER on the reality of HISTORY AND REAL LIFE. I’m sorry you might wanna grab a box of tissues.
You Cannot name one country on the planet that was not invaded by another That had their indigent population EITHER ENSLAVED OR KILLED by their oppressors. Why do you think South America speak Spanish? Do you think the Inca is the Aztecs and the Maya spoke Spanish? Countries were conquered and reconquered over and over again in history and this is exactly what happened and America was no different. Only when we finished we tried to make reparations versus many other countries that were simply overthrown again and again. At one time almost the entire continent of Europe was run by Italy, thereby called Rome.
You actually might wanna study the origin of the land of Israel and the UN role in its existence. Then we might have something to discuss.
Another ignorant individual here, And I am compelled to respond.
Do you know what the iron dome is? Do you know why Israel has one? Do you know of any other country that has an iron dome?
You should also tried doing some research That’s when you kinda study up on things and see what’s true and what’s not and you obviously haven’t done that
Nobody, including Israel thinks the Palestinians are bad What happened was the Palestinians were given billions of dollars a while ago and decided to let that money be spent by Hamas and against Israel instead of building infrastructure, including water, plants and utility pants they built weapons They voted to have Hamas be their government need I say more. ?
If you look at Gaza and you look at Israel, it’s like looking at a desert and looking at an industrialized futuristic nation, that events things that helps the world in area, such as medicine and science.
The Palestinians relinquish their power and tarnished their name go read up
And by the way, if I’d like to read something about Israel, I won’t wanna read something about from man that is Anti Israel who by the way his thesis is regarding Britain foreign policy to Israel. Which if you read at all know what’s going on in it in Britain with antisemitism Just today another example of British antisemitism has reared its ugly head.
He also believes in a one state system so he’s refusing what the UN did in 1948 and this is the guy you want me to read ? Why don’t I just read the words of the works of Osama bin Laden?
Sounds to me like you need to do more reading instead of only believing Israeli lies. Start with books by Ilhan Pappe.
My father was born JEWISH in Palestine in 1912. His and my entire family is from Israel. My wife’s family is from Israel and I follow what’s going on in Israel contemporaneously. So I’m not sure a book is gonna help.
However, Israel was given this sliver of land amongst a gargantuan Arab landmass, and has turned that little sliver into the pride of the world in its assistance with scientific and medical developments in agricultural developments. It’s been attacked half a dozen times since it was given that land in 1948.
And I’ve yet to have somebody tell me if Israel is so offensive why does it need iron dome and why is it the only country to have such a defense.?
You’re talking about individual countries which to me dictates your ignorance about how the mid east works because it’s all run by one location and it’s called Iran. And if you would like to read a book about every single terrorist organization, you’ll find that 98% of them are Muslim And I don’t care to dislike any religion, but that fact remains
I have many Islamic friends just because you are Muslim does not mean you hate Israel. And just because you’re Israeli doesn’t mean you hate Muslims And if not, for the weakness of the Biden administration, Saudi Arabia would now be another ally to Israel as is Egypt now.
Gaza’s chose to have Hamas as its governmental leadership. And they’re in lies the problem
So here we are talking about 2024 after numerous attack on Israel and you’re calling the Israeli territory grabbing goal on height today a land grab that’s rich Not sure if you’ve ever been to the area, but obviously it doesn’t seem like you have otherwise you would understand a little bit better Israel was just attacked from the north and from the east and needs to protect itself in order to protect itself. It needs to have “on “the high ground. Israel can say it’s theirs, but who’s gonna say it is or it’s not. I don’t really care about the goal on height, but obviously it’s a necessary defensive weapon against the hundreds and thousands of rockets that are shot in from there every single day
We would not even be having this conversation if it was October 6 So please spare me your ignorance
I would be willing to bet that 90% of the people posting here about Israel couldn’t identify Gaza on a map without having its name written upon it
There are too many antisemitic movements today, including college campuses countries, institutions, and even governments
So spare me your indignation about the rise of antisemitism all over the world
Yeah, and all these people calling me a bot because they don’t have an answer to common sense in the truth. End of story feel free to reply if you’d like, but those are the facts above.
Well we are bombing Syria.
The Proof of the Pudding as regards the Israeli intentions in Syria is if they take, and hold land in Syria... In the West Bank there are Settlers chanting from 'Jerusalem-To-Damascus'... Read up on the 'Greater-Israel-Movement'... Syria was/is an essentially Failed State... Wide-Spread Air-Strikes are not helping rebuild any future stable peaceful Government is Syria...
Are you asking me? All you have to do is hit Google and ask that question you’ll get your answer. But as I understand it and not that I agree with it, the group that took over the government of Syria is a terrorist origanization.
America’s Day being the world police should be behind her we have our own problems here that we need to resolve first including homelessness and poverty
If and when an organization that threatens America surfaces in Syria, I’m sure the new administration will take care of it immediately and decisively as it did before
Thank you, Heather.
Though signed by 48 of the 58 members of the UN General Assembly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is unfortunately not legally binding in any country. It was a step forward, but aspirational only. As anyone who follows the news knows, human rights are routinely violated in many countries. I do think, perhaps because I am a cockeyed optimist, that progress has been made toward its universal application in the decades since its adoption. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/how-to-define-global-citizen
While aspirational goals are obviously not enough, without having them being clearly enunciated, like in the UDHR, we tend to lose sight of them. How wonderful to learn of Eleanor Roosevelt's role in formulating them! Thank you, Heather, for reminding us of what we have aspired to in the past and to help us regain our commitment to realizing these universal human rights in the future.
The US has been fortunate to have many amazing First Ladies. WIth the exception of Melania, every First Lady in my lifetime honored human rights and worked to help promote one or more of them even after they were no longer living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I cannot resist denigrating Melania as arguably the worst First Lady ever. Has she ever done anything for anyone other than herself and a few members of her family?
Dontcha remember what was on the back of her jacket? i really don't care do u? Oh, wait, that wasn't what Eleanor Roosevelt would have said.
What about her "Be Best" initiative?
Oh wait, she was plagiarizing Michelle Obama.
Yeah, Gary, I guess you're right....
Guess we won’t be celebrating next year. 😢
Jeanne, I thought about our dilemma immediately. I hope there are plenty of courageous souls out there not only here, but elsewhere. I didn't know it was Human Rights Day either, so I am thankful that Heather has reminded us.
It will certainly be much harder, and perhaps also dangerous, but we might *need* it even more next year. Our government may have withdrawn; I hope the citizens who honor it today will also honor it next year.
Perhaps government of, by and for the people is at least partly (and necessarily) an attitude. It can be powerful in concert.
I hope we will find so things worth celebrating. There has never been a golden age. It's harder now, I admit.
This is so powerful. I wish others would see it, the ones who aren't listening. The ones who do not understand the threat to human rights. I cry, reading your words, as the world darkens around us, with venal and terrible people like hungry wolves attacking what they do not value and do not understand.
Until we get an incorruptible SCOTUS and a MSM press of courageous and unbiased journalists… we do not have any transparency for our countries moral compass, and it’s painful to read the words ‘HUMAN RIGHTS’ when 2025 will cage our brown skinned communities and a President with unethical immunity to spend our taxes from our wages to carry out personal revenge.
Without an honorable press - our citizens are not informed that it’s the 40th anniversary of United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT).
Another great Richardson punch-line.
Eleanor Rosevelt is one of my sheroes & I am glad to have shared a bit of time on earth with her—tho at 13 yrs old when she passed I was not yet aware of her gifts. Reading today’s Letter about the history and specifics of Human Rights Day and the UDHR, I can only hope that someday it will be fully realized….just as the promise of the USA is aspirational as well. We best keep tryin’ to make it so. ☮️
She was the best of gals, to my eye!
Gals?
Best of women, to my thinking.
Gregg, gal is an OK term IMHO….boys, gals…same bucket. Out of curiosity, I looked it up: “ The history of the term "gal" goes back to the Middle English period, where "girl" was originally used to describe a young person of either gender. Over time, the term evolved, and by the 16th century, it began to specifically refer to a young female.”
Thanks, I do appreciate that.