I still believe in Human Rights

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights... that's the message, the task I decided to undertake. A post from Amnesty International has asked me to devote my blog on this day to the subject of Human Rights violations. Unfortunately, it's not my strongest subject, so-to-speak. Perhaps that's a good thing. As I do a little research, I too will learn as I then pass along to you the reader.

I've been a "card-carrying member" of Amnesty International since High School. Back then I was a long-haired causey. I looked the part. I had my flannel shirts, Doc Martens, and was heading off to college in Massachusetts. I was listening to the message, at the time spewed from the lips of Bono and Eddie Vedder. Apartheid was wrong. Mandela still needed to be freed.

But years later, I now work for "the Man" I had always expected to fight. I'm still political. I'm still liberal. But I thought my idealism might have been lost. Now I work for the engine that jails the people I thought needed to be freed. For years I was pretty sure the career of my adulthood clashed mightily with the ideals of my youth.

However, after some time, and tempered by the knowledge gained from 11 years in this field, I realized that doing what I do has not blinded me to injustice. Sometimes it's hard to see that I work to right injustice when the media tends to focus on the injustice of the system. But I have learned that we can protect the innocent without violating the rights of the accused.

One can be part of the system and speak out against its abuses. Change can come from within. So now I support Amnesty's work without excepting its condemnation of the system. Moreover, I have the professional knowledge to sort the hope from the hype, and understand the sides of the accused and the accusers. And armed with that knowledge, I can state that I am still in favor of the death penalty, and publicly say Free the West Memphis Three, and the Jena Six.

Then of course there are those issues that no one can really dispute, like the situation in Darfur. Or, if you are the type reticent to act unless it's happening in your own backyard, thousands of Americans are still displaced or homeless as a result of Hurricane Katrina. And of course, while we're on the subject of atrocities of our own government, let's not forget Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Even if you support our government... even if you support the imprisonment of so-called "war criminals"... torture is illegal under international law, and to try to have a discourse as to whether or not "water-boarding" violates laws against torture is simply absurd. Torture is torture, one can not justify certain types of torture to get around the applicable laws.

Then again, the United States seems to enjoy circumventing International Law and denying rights... even of it's own citizens. Soldiers, even those who only signed up the the National Guard, are being forced to serve extra tours (see the movie Stop Loss), and now being denied their freedom of speech and religion in an effort to circumvent Conscientious Objector status.

My point is this, you don't have to be a hippy, or a screaming, flag-burning radical to be in favor of human rights. Some of us work for the government. I won't be labelled a tree hugging bleeding heart because I have a heart. I believe in Criminal Justice, I believe in the Government, I believe in the Police, and I still believe in Human Rights.