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Rights.
My favorite question from the Las Vegas Democratic Debates…
What is more important: human rights or national security?
(In my mind, this question was about torture, but that appeared to be in my mind only. It also applies to us going to war in a country, with a country and committing atrocities against those peoples).
So here is how it shakes out for the candidates:
Dodd: National security.
Clinton: National security
Richardson: Human rights
Edwards: lots of rhetoric but I believe his answer was National security.
Obama: “The concepts are not contradictory….they are complementary.” No clear answer..who is waffling now?
Dodd: National security.
This disturbs me. This unilateral view of the world. That our National Security issues pre-empt human rights. I think we need to remember that we are of one world, one planet and that we are much more alike than we are different. We all have families and cultures that we love; we have communities and we have beliefs. But we need to respect that those cultures and beliefs are sometimes different but because they are different, they are not necessarily wrong.
Human rights—it’s simple:
Every human has value.
Every human has a right to dignity.
Every individual has natural and individual rights that are beyond the authority of a governing body to dismiss.
Every human is allowed due process of law.
It is also my right to protect my family against imminent threat but that needs to be a definable threat. It is not an abstract threat that I can project onto another group or culture. The redhead next door maybe a threat to my family but I cannot persecute all redheads just because I have a right to protect my family.
So, on this particular point, Richardson gets my vote. What is YOUR opinion? Which is important: Human rights or National Security? What would you put your life on the line for?
5 comments:
I've always been bothered by the insistence of various politicians that human rights, and the rights of citizens in this country, too, take a back seat for our need to "feel safe". It's well known that torture does not produce adequate intelligence results. I'm so saddened by the candidates repsonses as a whole. I can't vote in this country...but I shudder to think what it means for me and my family.
BRAVA! What would be the point of being secure in a world without human rights? How secure could we possibly be if we knew our human rights were not respected?
It's been decades since I began questioning the idea that "the end justifies the means." As far as I can see, it doesn't!
It's hard to imagine putting my whole life on the line. But, as you know, I recently risked my job and reputation in defense of freedom of speech and religion.
And you know what? I found it much easier to stand firm knowing that you and others supported me and it was gratifying to hear from people who shared my views that they felt empowered by my actions.
Somewhere between being raised on the "Golden Rule" in Sunday school, studying American history in college and listening to Buddhist teachers as an adult, I began to feel that our capacity for compassion and our capacity for personal liberation/freedom are completely intertwined. That human and civil rights should always be first just seems like a given.
This is one of those issues that makes me think that some of the Dem candidates are more worried about saying what they think people like me in Ohio want to hear, instead of standing firmly on principles.
first off, i don't really have huge political opinions. apart from the fact that i think george w, ann coulter and bill o'reilly already have their parking spaces in hell picked out, or SHOULD do.
that said, i really wish i could have heard the full answers to this (although i'm sure i could find the debates somewhere on youtube) because in my mind they aren't complementary at all. national security has been erasing more human rights than it purports to protect.
the dignity issue is one that is not limited to the treatment of prisoners; what rights did we as citizens lose when we stepped up national security?
i was in the honolulu airport with my daughter, leaving the US. she was 5. f i v e. her number came up in the full-scan lotto, so they pulled her out of the security line to have a full body search. WHAT?!?!?! okay, so i'm five months pregnant, grabbing bags AND trying to get my crying daughter to laugh as her mummy makes a game of follow the leader (yes, i MADE them let me do it too) "okay, let's raise our arms and giggle..."
oh
dear
god
i have more rights in britain, the country we fought for our rights FROM in the first place!
i have friends here who don't like travelling to america because of the scrutiny they are subjected to. and they are welsh!
okay, i got carried away there. next time i shall try to be more brief. and i probably didn't even end up saying anything clever. wouldn't be the first, won't be the last. ..
Human Rights. Definitely.
I think everything else has been said.
And Holly what an awful experience. I don't know what'd I'd have done if it was E. I'd probably have been arrested or something.
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