My Rights

I have been thinking about my rights as a human being.

Do I have a right to life?  Well, here in my community I believe that my right to life is respected.  I feel no immediate threats.  But, I also recognize that all that could change in a heart beat.  I could be the victim of a random shooting in a public place, a home invasion, a collision with a drunk driver.  And if I were to leave my relatively safe community and travel to other parts of this nation and world, would everyone recognize my right to life?  Naturally, cosmically, the universe offers no guarantees to my life, there are diseases that could threaten my life, accidents can happen.  My own body refuses to guarantee my life with the possibilities of cancer, heart disease, etc.  If I were given a certificate proclaiming my right to life, what value would it have?

I have a right to liberty.  Do I?  Maybe here, but what about anywhere I might go?  Am I completely free or have I given up some freedoms to live in a family, to work and earn a living, to be a part of a church or community?

I have freedom of speech, don't I?  My observation is that the higher one rises in an organization, the less freedom of speech he/she has.  Every word is analyzed, and so you have to be very careful and restrained in what you say.  Today I cannot say everything that I believe because of the impact it would have on my family.

My rights may be comforting illusions, ideals that still need to be fully realized in the world.  I will feel safer when all killing ends, when there are no senseless murders, police shootings, or executions.  I will feel safer when a person can say whatever is on his mind without being attacked by the politically correct.  I will safer when kidnappings, imprisonments, and slavery are ended.  Until the rights of everyone are secured, my liberties are illusions waiting to become real.  Fear is never liberty.

Our civil liberties, our human rights are ideals.  They are what we want to have, not necessarily what we actually enjoy.  That is why each of us must continue to be vigilant and defend our rights and everyone else's right too.  We must keep the faith and work to realize the ideals of human rights in our world.  As Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.

I am grateful for the liberties I that have today, life, liberty, and my pursuit of happiness, handed down to me by the lives and blood of heroes, even if they are not absolute or perfect.  May I do what I can to pass these human rights to others, to everyone, and to the next generations.