Human Rights- Intro
My name is Jacklyn Hernandez, this is my first semester at CWE 2017, my majors are Early Childhood Education, I would like to someday become a teacher for young children at a public school. For many years I can admit that I’ve turned a blind eye when it came to women rights and human rights in general. I did not want to admit that there was and is injustice that is becoming tragically. As I chose this course, I plan to learn and become educated about our rights as humans, and more importantly women rights, as I know that because for many years since rights for women was never an option and we now have the privilege to a certain extent I would like to understand its history and how changes came about to now. I’ am very appreciative to have the privilege that I have now, but I sometimes question, am I settling for less?
During my reading of “Inventing Human Rights” by Lynn Hunt (2007), I found it difficult to really understand that a man like Thomas Jefferson, a once slave-owner, member of the Founding Fathers and author of the Declaration of Independence 1776 would state “we hold these truths the be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (15), but Hunt, experts and philosopher would argue that this statement did not involve everyone. This so called human rights yet limited women, slave men and free slave men, children, the disabled and the lower class people, if not excluded them. Another point Hunt questions when it comes to Jefferson statement “we hold these truths to be self-evident” is that it is extremely difficult to say, especially during a time where women and blacks had no saying, and era where slave was a major issues, they were partially either owned, or wives to someone who probably had those rights.
I can agree and understand, like Lynn Hunt and many people today may argue that although the laws are written for “everyone” those laws do not actually apply to everyone. The blacks and Hispanic and immigrants are constantly violated either by the police department, the government and now president, women still continue to face issues when it comes equality. What I find inhumane is how human beings can be defined, divided inhumanely. Many declarations have tried to declare human rights yet made no difference, written but not played.
