Tag: love

Human Rights Day Event 2011 – Activists Call for Rights, Dignity for All

At the National Press Club in Washington DC, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)  coordinated a Human Rights Day event on December 8, inviting co-sponsors from various groups to speak on behalf of human rights issues important to their organizations.  The groups remembered the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations on December 10, 1948 and the inherent human rights, human dignity, respect, and social justice that all of our fellow human deserve – of any identity group and in any part of the world.

* Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
* Ahmar Mustikhan, Senior Journalist and Area Expert, Balochistan
* Carolyn Cook, United for Equality
* Jared Pearman, Spokesperson of Falun Dafa Association of Washington DC
* Husain Abdulla, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
* Niemat Ahmadi, United to End Genocide
(For each individual, we have provide Internet links to their Human Rights Day Event remarks.)

The speakers discussed the need to consistently show respect, compassion, dignity, and human rights to people in different parts of the world and in different identity groups.

Human Rights Day – Remembering the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

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R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm spoke on the need to emphasize respect, instead of arrogance, in recognizing human rights, stating that it was arrogance by those who believe that they had superior rights to others that is a key problem in human rights around the world.  He urged the world to make a “declaration of love” towards their fellow human beings, and to Choose Love, Not Hate, in our lives and the lives of others in our communities, our nations, and our identity groups.  Jeffrey Imm spoke of the dire situation of poverty around the world and the impact on such poverty on human rights, stating that such poverty can undermine human rights for many, including individuals in the United States of America who he was working to support.  He urged people to give to charities and to people in need.

R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm also spoke on the future of human rights being defined by the example we set, and the way we treat our children.   He spoke on the continuing disgrace of abuse, rape, kidnapping, and murder of children around the world, as well as by those in institutions and society who have not made chidren’s rights a priority.  Jeffrey Imm urged the United States to adopt the Convention on Rights of the Child.

He also spoke on atrocities against children in the United States of America (the murder of 7 year of Jorelys Rivera, the murder of children in Texas), in Pakistan (the brainwashing of children by terrorists, the rape and murder of young girls, and the killing of Christian minority girls, including the recent killing of Amariah Masih), in Sudan and Dafur (rape of young girls, killing of children, and loss of their culture and innocence), in Balochistan (over 168 children have “disappeared” with teenage boys killed by authorities in a “kill and dump” campaign), in People’s Republic of China (the lack of concern of about a 2 year old child killed in the street, the government-sponsored forced abortions and infanticide, and the killing or abandonment of minority children such as children of Falun Gong practitioners), and in Bahrain (five children killed and hundreds of children subjected to excessive force by anti-protest authorities).  Jeffrey Imm also spoke on the institutional willingness to accept such abuses of children, including an Afghan girl released from prison on the condition she marry her rapist, and the reports of child abuse at the Pennsylvania State University and other institutions in America.  He also decried the so-called “honor killings” of young girls and boys by those who believe their cultural or religious views justified abuse and murder of children, and called for an end to these, noting that there were 3,000 such cases in the United Kingdom alone, according to stophonourkillings.com.  He spoke of the oppression against children in the United States of America, and his own efforts to stop such abuses.

Jeffrey Imm stated that these “are all OUR children,” who “are our common bond and bridge to the future.”  He suggested that in this season of reflection and gift-giving in much of the world, that we should first reach out to help the children and the less fortunate among us.   He stated that our greatest gift to children from adult human beings must be in making a renewed commitment to protect our vulnerable children around the world.  Jeffrey Imm stated, “We must give the gift of our courage, our consistency, and our commitment for the universal human rights and dignity to all of our children around the world…. We must set an example for our children. We must provide a beacon and symbol of hope for our children. We must show that by our words and more importantly by actions, in the United States and around the world – to our children – and to each other… We are Responsible for Equality And Liberty.”

A more detailed description of Jeffrey Imm’s remarks can be found at this web link.

A YouTube video of his remarks is online.

Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), Human Rights Day Event 2011

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Ahmer Mustikhan, a senior journalist and Balochistan area expert, spoke on the issue of supporting democracy and human rights for the Baloch people, and called the end to abuses against Pakistan minorities.  Regarding the challenges within the Pakistan government, Ahmer Mustikhan called for the United States and the nations of the world to prevent the Pakistan military from interfering with the democratic government in Pakistan.  “It is true the democratic government of President Asif Ali Zardari gave the Baloch 300 bodies in the last four or so years, but still we would support it against the military generals. Democracy does make a difference in the lives of people and we can not remain oblivious to this fact,” Mustikhan said.  Mustikhan, who founded the DC-based American Friends of Balochistan and co-founded the International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, also asked the world community to intervene in Balochistan on the same lines as they did in Libya to stop the genocide there and safeguard the right to self-determination of the Baloch people. He said scores of Baloch teenagers have been made victims of enforced disappearances and killed.  He narrated the story of a Baloch minor boy Abdul Wahid Baloch, aka Balaach Baloch, who gained fame after his picture showing him clad in a Balochistan flag was posted on social websites last year.  Ahmar Mustikhan also spoke on the issue of Pakistan minorities, including Pakistan Christians, and urged the Pakistan government to free Asia Bibi, who has been imprisoned on trumped-up charges of the “blasphemy law,” which has been used to target and oppress religious minorities in Pakistan.

A more detailed description of Ahmer Mustikhan’s remarks can be found at this web link.

A YouTube video of his remarks is online (Part 1, Part 2).

Ahmar Mustikhan, Senior Journalist and Area Expert, Balochistan – regarding the oppression and abuse of the Baloch people and Pakistan minorities on Human Rights Day Event 2011

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Carolyn Cook, founder and CEO of United for Equality, spoke at the National Press Club in Washington DC on December 8, as part of a Human Rights Day Event, calling for a renewed commitment by Americans in support of the Constitutional rights for all American women, as part of our global human rights goals.   United for Equality is a social justice enterprise seeking the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) by 2015. Carolyn stated that we must change the way people think and what we tolerate in our culture regarding the rights and dignity of our fellow Americans and fellow human beings.  Carolyn spoke out against the discrimination and the efforts to deny full equality to women in America, in every aspect of their lives.  She stated that we need to take our system back and make it ours. Carolyn Cook stated that United for Equality’s coalition successfully introduced a bill to the 112the session of the United States Congress calling for Congress to remove the time limit on the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.), as the United States previously had the ratification of the E.R.A. in 35 states, and it requires ratification in 38 states and by 2/3s of the House and Senate.  She pointed out how previous U.S. government officials sought to halt the efforts to ratify the E.R.A. after 10 years when nearly all of the required states but 3 had ratified this Constitutional Amendment, and pointed out that women have no desire to “start over” the ratification of the E.R.A.

Carolyn Cook also spoke on the paradigm of options we have as activists and participants in defending human rights.  Carolyn urged a more holistic approach towards addressing human rights as lifelong causes.  She discussed lessons learned from the Occupy movement and other social activist efforts to bring change to the world.  Her discussion on lessons from the Occupy movement are detailed in the YouTube video of her speech beginning at 6:36 minutes in on Part 1 and continuing and concluding in Part 2 of her remarks.

A more detailed description of Carolyn Cook’s remarks can be found at this web link.

A YouTube video of her remarks is online (Part 1, Part 2).

Carolyn Cook, CEO and Founder of United for Equality, Speaks on Behalf of American Women’s Constitutional Rights – on Human Rights Day 2011 Event

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Jared Pearman, Spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Washington, DC, spoke on behalf of human rights and human dignity for the Falun Gong / Falun Dafa.  He provided information about the Falun Gong as “a peaceful spiritual practice rooted in traditional Chinese culture,” which “consists of meditation, five gentle sets of exercises, and a moral philosophy centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.” While pointing out that Falun Gong is not political, Mr. Pearman stated that “as Falun Gong grew in popularity throughout the 1990s, China’s communist leaders began to view the practice and its moral philosophy as ideological competition.”  For the past 12 years, he indicated that “China’s rulers began a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong. Since then, like underground Christians and Tibetan Buddhists, millions of Falun Gong adherents have been denied the right to peacefully practice their faith.”  Despite massive arrests, torture, killings and denial of human rights for the Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party, Mr. Pearman stated that “Falun Gong has not been crushed, and reports from China indicate that the number of practitioners is instead growing. Ordinary citizens are increasingly standing up in defense of Falun Gong and are refusing to participate in the persecution.”  He called for the Chinese government and the world to recognize and defend the human rights of the Falun Gong. Mr. Pearman offered “an alternate vision of what China could be — an alternative way of conceptualizing Chinese national identity”…. that “connects with China’s moral and spiritual traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, and holds that the cultivation of virtue, honesty, and humanness are the true sources of national greatness.”

A more detailed description of Jared Pearman’s remarks can be found at this web link.

A YouTube video of his remarks is online.

Jared Pearman, Spokesperson of Falun Dafa Association of Washington DC, oppressed in the PRC and denied their most basic human rights and dignity by those who view their practice and support for traditional Chinese values as a threat to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – Speaking at 2011 Human Rights Day Event

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Husain Abdulla, leader of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), spoke on behalf of Bahrainis oppressed by government forces that seek to deny democracy.  He spoke of the initial protests on February 14, 2011, of those who sought to join the “Arab Spring” movement for democracy, and the brutal oppression of the Bahrain government.  Since March 2011, Husain Abdulla stated that Bahrain protesters have been subjected to torture and death.  45 were killed, over 2,000 arbitrary arrests, 1,866 cases of documented torture, 5,000 prisoners of conscience, destruction of 40 places of worship, and 3,000 fired from their jobs, 500 forced out of Bahrain, 3 on death row, 477 students expelled from universities, and 300 students had scholarships taken away — all in retaliation for the willingness to protest against the Bahrain government.  He stated that over 500 doctors have been detained.  He noted that Bahrain is a close ally to the United States, and he urged Americans to call for the American government to end the “blind eye” to Bahrain human rights violations.

A more detailed description of Husain Abdulla’s remarks can be found at this web link.

A YouTube video of his remarks is online (Part 1, Part 2).

Husain Abdulla, speaking at National Press Club on Human Rights Day Event – Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) — speaking on behalf of Bahranis oppressed by government forces that seek to deny democracy
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Niemat Ahmadi spoke at the National Press Club Human Rights Day Event on December 8, 2011, to address the abuse of Darfuris and Sudanese. Niemat Ahmadi represents the United to End Genocide group. She spoke about the Genocide in Sudan which has been ongoing for over 8 years, and that have driven 4,000,000 out of their homes.  Niemat Ahmadi spoke on the need for Americans to call for justice regarding Omar Al-Bashir.  She  noted that the efforts of Al-Bashir regime  have changed their tactics and seek to use rape against women as a weapon of war against the Darfuri people. Niemat Ahmadi spoke of the continuing attacks on Darfuri cities, homes, and attempts to stop safe travel of people of African nationalities who have been fleeing to displaced persons camps.  Niemat Ahmadi urged those in Arab nations seeking democracy in their nations to stand up to dictatorial Arab regimes who have supported the brutal Al-Bashir regime.

A more detailed description of Niemat Ahmadi’s remarks can be found at this web link.

A YouTube video of her remarks is online (Part 1, Part 2).

Niemat Ahmadi, with United to End Genocide, Speaks Out on the Darfur Genocide in Support of Human Rights – at Human Rights Day Event 2011

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In R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm’s concluding remarks, he urged the human rights activists to continue to work together in the coming year on joint activists.   He noted that after the winter comes the spring, and in the spring, he often goes to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum during Holocaust Remembrance Days to participate in the reading of the names.   Even if there is only one or two people there, Imm noted, there is someone to remember, and it is done simply because it is the right thing to do.

He urged human rights activists to remember that in their work of spreading hope, reaching out to offer dignity, justice, freedom, and consistent universal human rights to all.  That is the vision and the mission of being collectively…

Responsible for Equality And Liberty….

Choose Love, Not Hate, Love Wins.

Orange Ribbon for Universal Human Rights – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Oslo and Finding the Courage to Change — A Responsibility for All (Part I)

We stand in sympathy and shared mourning with the people of Norway over their loss in the horrific terrorist attack of July 22, 2011 in Oslo. We can only imagine the pain of parents who have lost their children, and the pain of families that have lost their loved ones. They are not just numbers or statistics, but they were unique and special human beings who loved and were loved. As I am writing this, some of the first funerals have ended, and those families and friends have gone home to remember their loved ones.

While we may want to “make sense” of such horrific terrorism against innocent children and people, the truth is there is no rational reason for the monstrous actions that Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to committing.

But as the world watches the courage of the Norwegian people after this terrorist attack, we must also find the courage to urge our society to make changes that would discourage inspiring such individuals as Mr. Breivik. Too many have known too much for too long, and not done enough to stop the rise of hatred in our world. Our sympathies to the Oslo families must not be half-hearted regrets, but must be full-hearted commitment to find ways to change, including standing up for our responsibilities to one another.

We have many freedoms as human beings. But with great freedoms comes great responsibilities. Any cause or campaign for human rights must understand these basic aspects of human society.

Those who work in the vital and passionate cause of human freedom must also remember that the struggle for such universal human rights are for all people. That includes human rights for those we may disagree with, as common brothers and sisters in the human race – the only race that matters.

It has been my privilege to preside over a coalition of individuals passionate about human rights that periodically come together for different human rights issues, coordinated by Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.). We address different human rights issues for people of all nationalities, religions, races, and genders, because equality and liberty is a right for all. When equality and liberty is denied for some, it is our problem as fellow human beings.

Our slogan has been “Choose Love, Not Hate. Love Wins.”

I was surprised to discover how controversial that slogan would be. A number of people have told me how weak it sounds, and how they did not find it sufficiently inspirational to “fight” for human rights. But we are not “fighting,” we are reaching out. We may challenge anti-freedom ideologies, and we may even confront organizations’ activities, but our goal is to reach out to our fellow human beings everywhere for consistency on the cause of our universal human rights.

While we may disagree with the ideas, words, and activities of some, as human beings we must reach out to offer love and our shared human rights to all, including those who would call themselves our enemies. Some may wonder how can we love those who view us as their enemies? But the real question is: how can stand for universal human rights and NOT love our fellow human beings? Our greatest defense for these rights is not our passion for campaigns and causes, but it is our compassion for one another as human beings.

There are some who believe that they can work for human rights, just for one culture, one religion, one race, one group, and not others, because they believe that only their group deserves such rights. That perspective negates the very term “human rights.”

Confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik may have believed that human beings in only some groups, religions, and cultures are entitled to human rights, and even life itself. But those who believe in human rights must always reject such exclusionary and supremacist philosophies – and we must never forget the grim results of such thinking. We must always remember that all human beings have human rights, including Mr. Breivik.

The challenge our society faces is how to balance our disagreements with dignity and compassion. For some and in some instances, this may be difficult. But we are reminded by the terrorist attack in Oslo, what happens when we do not make love and dignity for our fellow human beings our first priority.

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This will be continued in “Oslo and Finding the Courage to Change — A Commitment to Change Our Dialogue (Part II).”

How Hate and Emotional Storms Plan to Destroy Us

In another of the articles on love and hate during the moratorium against hate, I address the challenge of hate and emotional storms attacking society.

In the struggle throughout America to deal with the national problem of obesity, the well-meaning advocates of exercise, diet, and responsibility complete ignore the number one cause for obesity: how we live today. I don’t mean the references to our sedentary lifestyles, the unhealthy foods promoted, or the atmosphere that discourages exercise.  We hear about those problems frequently.  It is popular to talk about these failures in American culture on talk show on television, watched by people who are told if only you walk more, or if only you eat more broccoli, etc., your life will be better.

But these debates don’t mention the larger problem of the emotional storms of abuse, anger, hopelessness, and even hatred against ourselves and one another. Moreover, we view such emotional storms as someone else’s problem, not a societal responsibility to address.  We have emergency repair organizations and the Red Cross to deal with physical storms, floods, and disasters.

But who can the millions turn to in dealing with the crises of emotional storms that regularly lash our lives as human beings?  Some turn to their religious faiths, a very small number seek counseling.  But the vast majority who face such emotional storms are simply ignored, forgotten, and expected to address their issues without guidance and without help.  Society believes that emotional storms, after all, aren’t “real storms” and they don’t really require societal involvement.

We have entire television channels devoted to addressing and preparedness for physical weather storms, but when it comes to emotional storms within our lives, American society largely fails to even acknowledge that they are a societal problem.  They are, after all, just “part of life,” or as years ago people would say “into every life some rain must fall” when dealing with emotional trauma, fear, hopelessness, abuse, and anger.

For many, they find shelter from such storms in “comfort foods” as their drug of choice to help cope with emotional storms and trauma. Then we wonder why we have a national problem with obesity, and many blame the “laziness” of our public for this.  This spins the wheel of negativity once again, as the latest self-help doctor on television tells the public, if only you would eat better, work out more, you would not be overweight or sick.  How we feel as human beings and as a society?  That’s too complicated and it takes too much time (see “life at the speed of hate”).  Our society has the same approach to cigarette, alcohol, drug addiction.  The addictions are the problem, not our lives, not the emotional storms that we ignore as a society.

We are too busy building our prosperity to care about how each other feels.  This then gives us the money to find countermeasures to the food, alcohol, drug, etc. self-medication attempts to cope with the real problem of the emotional storms within our lives — that we choose to ignore as a society. But the result is the same regardless of what we use to self-medicate ourselves in the emotional storms that lash our lives.  There is no visible option or consideration for many to channel their lives to help their community, to help in social responsibility, as a means to cope with these problems. Too many have lives that are solely centered around the stress, anger, abuse, fear, and hopelessness in their own lives – yet our society does not acknowledge this as a problem.  There is no association with this problem and our larger societal struggles with hate.

What does it have to do with hate?

It is not just that people feel hopeless, powerless, and frustrated in their lives.

Too many hate their lives and they hate themselves. While American television shows promote the latest diets, the latest execise machines, we allow a national epidemic of self-hatred to go unchallenged and even unacknowledged. Society allow us to believe that hating ourselves is fine.   Then we wonder why we are an angry nation.

So if our society tolerates self-hatred, why should our society expect to challenge hatred against others?  It may not be as socially acceptable in some areas, but when we teach acceptance of hatred – no matter who it is directed at – we are teaching acceptance of the most destructive force against all of humanity.

Once we are taught that it is acceptable to hate ourselves, too many are ultimately driven to hate their fellow human beings. It is a short distance to travel.

Such hatred (towards ourselves and each other) and such emotional storms don’t simply seek to kill us.  They seek to DESTROY us as human beings from the inside one at a time. Then collectively, the virus of hatred and indifference to our fellow human beings spreads and becomes a way of societal life.

Hate seeks to turn our human bodies into inhuman vessels of negativity, violence, and hatred towards humanity itself.  Ultimately, there is nothing that the inhuman grip of hatred would not force us to do, even destroy humanity itself.  Hate is the ultimate in self-destructive forces in humanity.

But we can choose another path.  We can give victory to tolerance, have the courage of compassion, and build a path and platform to love and compassion.  Even when we think we are enslaved by our problems and pressed into a corner by our emotional storms, we still can choose.  There is another way.

All of us in our society struggles between hate and tolerance every day.  Every time we show restraint, every time we offer compassion and mercy, we take another step towards human dignity in our societies.  But our world and our lives are often beset with emotional storms that we must acknowledge as a society.  We must find ways to protect our hearts and minds from the abuse, not simply internalize the abuse and allow it to become a part of our identities.  When abuse seeks to drive us to hate, we must reach instead for love.

But of all those we must love, we must first love ourselves as worthy human beings.

When the voices attacking us from without and from within rage around us, we must find a quiet place of human sanctuary that will not allow our self worth, our self dignity to be denied.  When hate seeks to invade our sanctuary of self, we must tell hate “we will not be moved.”

In that quiet place of humanity, we must reaffirm to Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.

A Month Without Hate

Let us say no to hate.  It is something that we have the power individually to do.   On January 13, we saw a 9 year old girl born on 9/11 who was buried in Arizona, murdered by a man who sought to assassinate Congresswoman Giffords and shooting a crowd who went to see her.  The response has been more anger, more venom, and some places even more hate.   We can say “enough.”  And it is time for us to see for ourselves how much control that hate has over our lives.

So we offer this challenge to ourselves and to you.  Let us try a one month moratorium on hate – whether it is those who call others “thugs” or preach about the “worst people in the world.”  Let us step away from such venom, harsh words, and accusations, and yes, hatred, towards others for one month – from January 14 to February 14, concluding on Valentine’s Day.

We could have picked any day to attempt this moratorium on hate, but let’s start now – let’s start today.

Furthermore, we offer you  an Online Petition to take a public stand and tell the world that you will join this one month without hate at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mowohate/petition.html

Then tell us your experiences, and we will anonymously (unless you want to be public on them) report them here on February 14.  Let us see individually what a struggle it is to go a month without hate, and see what type of grip hate has on our lives as individuals.

To take a stand against hate, we declare our intentions and our goals to take charge of our lives and declare a month-long moratorium on hate.  We seek to reject hate in our lives from in this month from January 14 to February 14.  We seek to stop allowing hate-filled images, words, and comments in our individual lives and not allow hate to be a source of entertainment or interest in our daily lives.

We seek first and foremost to change hate in OUR lives, before we seek to change the lives of others.  We will use this month where we reject hate in our lives to be consistent on hate.

We will reject the hate that continues to be spread throughout the world in many ways and many places, on the Internet, in public, in private, in media outlets, among politicians, and among ourselves.

We will reject hate against identity groups of our fellow human beings’ race, religion, nationality, creed, gender, sexual orientation, and we commit that it will not be a part of our lives for the next month.  We will reject all slurs and cruel terms against our fellow human beings.

To those who seek to cling to hate, we offer an outstretched hand, not an upraised fist.  They too are our brothers and sisters in humanity.

We urge all to join us in this month long moratorium rejecting hate in our lives.

We urge all to Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.

We take this public stance to prove that we have the Courage to defy hate in our own lives.