On December 10th, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights celebrated its 70thanniversary. This visionary document addresses how human beings should treat one another.
And while the United Nations celebrated and a few academics discussed human rights, other exchanges occurred.
As people took nonviolent stands to uphold human rights they were met with paid enforcers keeping peaceful demonstrators in check.
On the San Diego – Tijuana border over 400 interfaith leaders and advocates gathered in support of asylum seekers. Domestic and international law grants people the right to seek asylum. Our government has engaged unlawfully to deter them. And yet it was thirty-two faith leaders who were arrested during the peaceful demonstration.
And when 1,000 of the youth–led Sunrise Movement descended on Washington, DC to promote the Green New Deal, over 140 were arrested as they peacefully addressed climate change and offered real solutions.
It has come to this. When leaders refuse to listen and government abandons its sovereign duty to obey the law and care for its citizens, it is our moral right to nonviolently resist. It is also our sacred duty to support those arrested and to help in anyway we can.
photo: Faith leaders gather in support of the migrant caravan in front of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials, at the border fence between the United States and Mexico on Dec. 10, 2018. Credit: Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters
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let kindness win 