NA Confidential’s entry for November 10, 2005 was overtly inspired by the New York Times and its Sunday book review section.
Books, a bogus Texan drug sting, and New Albany's human rights obligation.
As I noted 14 months ago, there was an “ulterior motive” to introducing the subject, as there were efforts underway at the time toward reviving New Albany’s moribund human rights commission. These have come to nothing, and that's appalling even if there were valid reasons for the inaction.
Like so many other ordinances, a human rights commission is on the books – albeit unfunded, unused and unknown. It is an ironclad fact that there remains interest in the community for reviving it, and I’m equally certain that it is sorely needed in a place where topics like basic rights, diversity, and fundamental human dignity are regularly the targets of gleeful disparagement and outright malice on the part of those who've obviously not suffered owing to such generally institutionalized deprivations.
Might a functional human rights commission be at least a part of any possible slate of solutions to the city’s housing problems? Tenant rights and human rights are cut from the same bolt, aren’t they?
Are any candidates for office willing to go on record as supporting the revival of New Albany’s human rights commission?
Although a better question might be: Are any candidates for office willing to go on record as supporting anything?
Tune in tomorrow for more on that topic.
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15 comments:
"The truth outs - but those most needing to hear it won't." was the last line in that piece. I think NA needs a truth and reconciliation commission before it needs a human rights commission.
Interesting idea but I really think that the last thing NA needs, right now, is another commission, committee, department, study group, etc that cannot or will not do anything.
If that makes me sound like the "GoF", so be it.
The human rights commission could be revived on a volunteer basis, I think.
It is not the money. I believe it would just be another "place" to pass the buck. Enforcement is the key and I just don't see any Mayor and City Council giving up power to such a commission. At least not in the foreseeable future.
As has been pointed out, my favorite color is gray. This is just my first thought and I am anxious to read/hear any other ideas on the subject. If need be, I promise not to wait 3 years to admit that I made a mistake.
Like it or not, we are the human rights commission.
From the Republic of Conscience
Seamus Heaney
I
When I landed in the republic of conscience it was so noiseless when the engines stopped
I could hear a curlew high above the runway.
At immigration, the clerk was an old man who produced a wallet from his homespun coat and showed me a photograph of my grandfather.
The woman in customs asked me to declare the words of our traditional cures and charms to heal dumbness and avert the evil eye.
No porters. No interpreter. No taxi.
You carried your own burden and very soon your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared.
II
Fog is a dreaded omen there but lightning spells universal good and parents hang
swaddled infants in trees during thunderstorms.
Salt is their precious mineral. And seashells are held to the ear during births and funerals.
The base of all inks and pigments is seawater
Their sacred symbol is a stylised boat.
The sail is an ear, the mast a sloping pen, the hull a mouth-shape, the keel an open eye.
At their inauguration, public leaders must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep to atone for their presumption to hold office-
and to affirm their faith that all life sprang from salt in tears which the sky god wept after he dreamt his solitude was endless.
III
I came back from that frugal republic with my two arms the one length, the customs woman having insisted my allowance was myself.
The old man rose and gazed into my face and said that was official recognition that I was now a dual citizen.
He therefore desired me when I got home to consider myself a representative and to speak on their behalf in my own tongue.
Their embassies, he said, were everywhere but operated independently and no ambassador would ever be relieved.
I posted on my blog about a human rights issue in France.
It reminds me that the issue of 'human rights' is so perilous because people always want to put their agendas in front of the 'rights.' It has become a battle of being right instead of doing right.
Here's an example:
You can read the story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4644766.stm
In a nutshell, a group is serving soup to the poor and the needy in France and in Belgium, but they are serving soup with a pork base to it. People who adhere to a strict Jewish/kosher lifestyle cannot, for religious reasons, eat pork, and those who practice Islam also do not eat pork products. As a large number of the poor in these regions are of Arab descent and practice Islam, the message is clear. You can eat the soup and do something which, according to your religion is immoral; or you can go hungry. Your choice.
I am unclear if this is a "Christian" group or not. I do know that they are missing the point on charity, however. One feeds the hungry in order to fee the hungry. It is not done to make a political point. It is not done to force people to behave one way or another. It is not even done to assure that these people feel appreciation for what you have done for them. We feed the hungry simply to feed the hungry. No accolades are needed and no agenda is necessary other than feeding those who are less fortunate than we are.
The French government is, to their credit, cracking down on this as racist behavior. I just can't figure out why people choose to do things like this. If anyone has any insights to this, I'd be happy to listen.
Oh, great. Now I am in the middle of a discussion on human rights with Roger, a philosophy major, John, a Minister, and Jeff, perhaps the best writer on the local blog scene.
I am outa here. My mother may have raised an ugly child but not one that stupid.
Dang Hoosier, don't stop talking about this. You are truly one of the very insightful folks around. Don't think anything you say or write isn't as much or more insightful than anything anyone else says!
Don't worry John, he won't go far. Steve's Vision email doesn't work, FOS won't allow comments, and SOLNA is shut down for the time being.
He's got nowhere to go and he can't resist stirring the bacteria.
Kinda reminds me of someone else but I can't quite put my finger on who. Hmmm...
On a more serious note, Bluegill once again pegged it. Human rights, like other issues is a grass roots effort.
Officialdom can't be bothered.
I agree with Bluegill as well. Human rights is a grass roots movement. Actually, if you look at anti-slavery, woman's suffrage, the civil rights movement, etc., they all started with the grass roots.
I too agree that human rights begins with the people, at the deepest grassroots level. It shouldn't take any special department, or commission , or any law. What would the law/bill be titled..."The Common Decency Act?"
Anyway... there is already a law that was written a long time ago and is known as the Ethic of Reciprocity, or The Golden Rule, which is the fundamental moral principle found in virtually all major religions and cultures, and Rev. Manzo may agree. It goes something like this.."Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In other words, just treat others as you would like to be treated, if you were them. It says nothing about treating one group of people one way and another group of people another based upon their skin color or their religious or political beliefs. Just get over it! Drop the handed down bigotry from generations before us and embrace the diversity that is America.
The two deleted comments were mine. There was a blooger.com problem and when it posted, it posted 3 times instead of once.
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