What do we want to be as a people?
Published on January, 46 2017
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Maine Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, located in Brunswick, is one of the many groups that has endorsed the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017. The goal of the march, organized by women but not limited to women, is to insist on human rights for all people.
The week after International Human Rights Day was celebrated in 2016, Jean Sanborn of the Maine Branch published an op-ed in the December 16 issue of the Brunswick “Times Record” in which she writes that the issue of human rights has never “seemed more urgent and close to home.” In her column, titled “What Do We Want to Be as a People?” (link to the full article, quoted from here, is provided below), she reminds readers that “Among the big issues of our recent election those of equality among races, ethnicities, genders, gay and transgender persons, immigrants, and workers all are questions of Human Rights.”
Of the January 21 Women’s March, she writes: “This march will not be a protest filled with anger. Rather, we want to remind the new administration that Human Rights are a deep historical declaration of the United States and must not be forgotten in the aftermath of a divisive and sometimes vicious campaign.”
Sanborn also points out that the work of peace is not just about “distant marches and local vigils and electronic petitions to world leaders.” It is also about working locally, about working together, “here in Brunswick [or in your hometown], with those who serve the hungry, the homeless, the neglected, the prisoners, all whose Human Rights are already or may become trampled upon.”
Read the full text of What Do We Want to Be as a People?
