It is not an easy task to support human rights. It is an especially difficult task when there are unpleasant truths which must be faced, and when the country we love is called upon to face its past and change course to achieve a future more consistent with its ideals. It is an impossible task if it is engaged in alone.
But one is not alone in the struggle for human rights. The sites below identify those who have gone before and paid a high price for their efforts, as well as the organizations, the media, the individuals who are engaged today. In their respective ways, each offers and requests involvement and assistance. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverence the race that is set before us." (New Testament: Hebrews, 12:1]
Martyrs, Victims, Witnesses
Individuals who have paid with their lives for oppression linked to America; or who have suffered atrocities; or who have stood up to be counted in major fashion.
A Sermon, Mary's Three Challenges, details the foreign policy basis for American support for oppression abroad.
Praise for Eleanor Roosevelt and her work the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the product
of a United Nations committee, authorship of the famous document
is mostly attributed to the mind and heart of Eleanor Roosevelt,
widow of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Eleanor became First
Lady in 1932. For the next 13 years that Franklin was in the
White House, this statuesque, crooked-toothed, homely matron was
a target of constant criticism, ridicule, and gossip. When I read
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights I see more than just an
articulation of humanistic values; I see a lesson in the
contribution of character to nobility, one before which the
memories of persons such as Jackie and Diana pale by comparison.
And so, by pledging my support for the Declaration I am also
paying my respects to dear Eleanor, a woman who deserved to be
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize far more than many who have
won the accolade. (Edward M. Chilton, September, 1998)
Sites linking to a page of the Virtual Truth Commission
Embassy of Haiti, Washington, D. C., lists the Virtual Truth Commission's Haiti Page among its Solidarity Links.
