Courtesy of: http://www.blogactionday.org
Today is Blgg Action Day. Considering this blog only started up yesterday, this was news hereabouts, but here we are. Today's topic? Human Rights. In particular, the Blog Action website points us toward the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Read it here. So, Strummerfest fans, what would you say is the state of human rights today?
For our part, let's keep it simple. Strummer summed up the situation pretty well in this famous statement:
For our part, let's keep it simple. Strummer summed up the situation pretty well in this famous statement:
I'd like to say people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks. I am one of them. But we've all gotta stop... just stop following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything; this is something that I'm beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other; it's because they've been dehumanized. It's time to take that humanity back into the centre of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed... it ain't going anywhere! They should have that on a big billboard across Times Square. Think on that. Without people you're nothing.
There are several things to say about that, but let's just point out two: (1) It's pretty simple, isn't it? Stop being greedy; stop being selfish; and things will get better. In this blogger's other life, he teaches a fair bit about law to community associations. Inevitably every lecture comes down to this: if you treat other people the way you'd like to be treated, and if you don't allow yourself to lose sight of their humanity, it is almost impossible to break the law, and your community will, on the whole, be a happier, healthier, better place to live. There's really not much more to it than that. And then there's point (2): it starts with you. Strummer admits, "I am one of them." That's the first step to making change -- recognizing where it really begins. It's no good preaching about human rights in the world at large if you don't treat your own neighbours, and, indeed, your own family, well. All moral accomplishment begins and ends in the moments that individuals make choices within the context of their private lives. Be good, folks, and the humanity will follow.
Comments?
Comments?