This should go without saying right? Of course we should care about human rights issues domestically and abroad, what kind of people would we be if we didn't? The reality is though that we lead very busy lives and have 8 second attention spans, we are also distracted and assaulted by major media sources. Therefore, its hard to see whats real and whats important to focus on.
In the US, we pride ourselves on our freedom and while we differ on how to do it, we all agree that other people being free worldwide is a good thing. Not that people need to live life like Americans do, rather that they should be able to practice their spiritual beliefs and have access to clean water simple things like that, we can agree there right?
Yet we wage wars in ancient deserts to allegedly 'liberate' but sometimes our leaders remain reluctant to talk to countries who are clearly involved in egregious human rights abuses. Obama met with Xi Jinping China's leader today at APEC about trade and tourist visas. You know what he didn't talk about that the Chinese government performs state sponsored ORGAN HARVESTING OF LIVE PEOPLE FOR PRACTICING MEDITATION. Does that sound outrageous to you? Unbelievable? Believe it. More info at StopOrganharvesting.org.
Human rights matter, we can't just pretend to be a nation we have to be that nation. Don't we have an obligation to condemn human rights violations? Didn't we make a global promise in the mid 1940's of "never again". But what if this was happening again? In 2014?
This blog is not meant to have a shouting tone, but these things are important to me. And while there are many things we can concern ourselves with in the world I do think a growing global consciousness around human rights is a really good place to start. When we have compassion for others we become better people ourselves.
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