December 10th: Merry Human Rights Day

On 10 December 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inadvertently marking the date as Human Rights Day for future generations. This was a moment in time which represented "the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want", three years since the atomic bomb slaughtered and saved thousands, since human beings had celebrated the end of what was to have been the last 'great' war, since what has become the world's most recognized genocide was ended. Article 1 of the Declaration states, point blank, that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights", without conditions or pretenses. Article 19 declares that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression": everyone, no acceptions. And Article 28 says that "Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized": everyone, yet again. Everyone.

Yet every day we forget. We forget, don't we, that 'everyone' is not limited to the people we know personally, to the people in our neighborhoods, to our city, or even to our country and hemisphere. Appropriately, NASA's space shuttle Discovery launched earlier this night, sending seven human beings into the majesty of space, to further the operation of a beatiful craft dubbed the International Space Station. Humanity is an amazing thing: the resiliency of our species, the creativity, the passion, the potential for such wonderful empathy and such terrifying lack...

There should be no need to declare a 'Human Rigts Day'. Much like that day that seems merely to fill a holiday-void in mid-February (let's face it - we'd all be a lot happier if we treated every day like Love Day), declaring a day in honor of human rights should be extremely redundant.

December 10th. Human Rights Day. Live it every day.