Add to favorites Examiner Bio

You have the right....

Who doesn't care about human rights? It's one of the basic laws of humanity. You have the right not to be tortured and then locked up in a freezing, pitch-black damp cell, naked. Unless of course, it involves a woman wearing six-inch stiletto heels,  a black leather mini-skirt and money changes hands. In which case, you're on your own.

This week, the United States has been voted on to the UN Human Rights Council. Something we shunned during the Bush administration because we didn't like some of the other nations on the council. Fair enough. But if you need to clean up the living room, sweeping the driveway isn't going to get the job done. Oh it may look like you're working, and the neighbors can see you are working and they'll get the impression that your house is clean, because hey…you're working right? But when you go inside, the living room is still a mess.

There are those who say we shouldn't participate in the HRC. That the HRC is a farce. That certain members like Saudi Arabia, China and Cuba being able to make decisions about human rights makes a mockery of the whole deal. And those are valid points. Still, I think we need to be on the Council. Because if nothing else, we still hold the moral high ground. Oh, right.

One thing is certain about system. if you're going to fix it, you gotta get your hands dirty. Or as the singer-songwriter Steve Forbert said, "You cannot win if you do not play."

Let's face it. Human rights is a touchy subject. I mean, how seriously are we going to hold Saudi Arabia's feet to the fire about their awful record. You know, the folks who provide the gas for our cars to get to those human rights demonstrations. Or what about China? How willing are we to give up our cheap  picture frames from Wal-Mart? Yes, the ones we use to frame a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and put on the wall in our study.

Calling people on their human rights issues is like going out to dinner with someone you need to borrow money from, and not pointing out that he is an uncouth, disgusting slob at the dinner table. Yes he's gross, but, hey....you need the money. Hey we might not be able to change things overnight, and we'll probably wimp out a number of times in the future. But not even trying, well, that's just un-American.