* All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
This is reminiscent of "All men are created equal..." plus there is an acknowledgment that women and children are also born free and equal in relation to dignity and rights. Being "endowed with reason and conscience" human beings "should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." These are values embedded in most religious or spiritual traditions.
What would it mean to really hold to the idea that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights? Would it mean that we could ignore their deaths? Torture them? Kill them? Is this acting towards them in a spirit of brotherhood? Would we condemn such free and equal beings to lives of poverty and ignorance? Would we refuse to help them develop their reason and their consciences, or stand by while they were being abused by parents, peers, spouses, political adversaries, or police/militaries?
The news media are full of stories about people being attacked, assaulted, disrespected, going hungry, homeless, fleeing violence, fleeing environmental devastation. We collectively need to make these values real, to base our actions on these values, rather than paying lip service to them and then acting in ways that openly contradict what we pretend to profess.
Listening to Jim Wallis talking about the great divides in our nation and others, divisions of gender, race and class, I was impressed with his grasp of the need to state wrongs that have been done, apologize for them and make reparations. This reminds me of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, in which those who committed crimes during apartheid were allowed to confess these crimes publicly and given amnesty. That is a different story than the one I wrote about yesterday that is taking place in Argentina. The defendants have plead not guilty in spite of the fact that they were in power in the 1980's when thousands were killed, tortured, disappeared under their military government in Argentina.
May our respect for the dignity of each person be increased, may we acutely feel their pain when our actions rob others of their rights and dignity, may our consciences and reason speak to us loudly and may we act always in the spirit of brotherhood. May we acknowledge the wrongs we do to others, apologize and make reparations. May we who live in privilege understand that the price for our privilege was paid by others who had no choice but to do what benefited us far more than it did them. May we understand that we need to make reparations to them and/or their descendants for what has been taken from them.
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