Assignment 01 – Self Intro and Hunt Introduction
Hi class, I’m Destiny Rivera and this is my first semester at CWE, Introducing and describing myself has always been a semi-challenging task for me, which is somewhat ridiculous considering that I should know myself better than anyone else. It’s a pensive question. It’s a question that makes you weigh your personal pros and cons. It’s a debate between deciding whether the answer should be of academic or of personal relevance, whether it’s interesting enough to share or whether some things are better left unsaid. Maybe this is just my perspective on the task because I am indeed a contemplative person. My thoughtful nature contributes to my interest in this class. I want to be educated on why human rights, a topic that is seemingly self-explanatory, is a topic of controversy, of debate.
The label “Founding Father” often refers to someone who contributed to a movement, someone almost revolutionary. Thomas Jefferson is widely known as a Founding Father by the United States of America, considering that he was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence, a document that emphasized that all men were created equal, contributed to the development of the idea that Man is entitled to these non-negotiable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. According to Lynn Hunt (2007), these ideals and who they actually applied to were not explained enough. This document, a piece that served as a forerunner to the Universal Declaration for Human Rights adopted by the United Nations, is a work of controversy. Though there are a great quantity who idolize Jefferson, appreciative of his seemingly well-intentioned print, there are people who speak volumes against his credibility. The author, Jefferson, did not have enough credibility to make his belief of equality evident through his own reality, considering that he was a slave owner himself.
Jefferson’s hypocrisy, along with others men throughout history who have had the privilege to speak publicly, only adds disbelief to the idea that the rights of man, or human rights, should be evident and obvious. Several years later, after the Declaration of Independence had been published, a committee of forty deputies came up with articles that emphasized not only the rights of man, but of human rights before the law. In 1948, the United Nations adopted these articles as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, human rights can still be argued as clouded by restrictions, whether rights are limited to someone due to their religious practices, age, disability, and so on. With the recent and popular use of social media, our present generation can view uproars of inhumane acts globally, discrimination in almost every social setting, and injustices under the law.
The United States is guilty, much like many other parts of the world, of turning a blind eye to those in need: the impoverished, the addicts, the old, the young, minorities, immigrants, etc. We’re living in a world where Muslims cannot even converse in their own Arabic or foreign languages without striking fear into the lives of those who are not educated in that language, to those who are prejudice, and to those who are ignorant. We’re living in a world where protests are constantly happening to ensure that everyone is aware that all lives matter, an idea that Jefferson would have ensured was self-evident. Trayvon Martin. Eric Garner. Kendra James. These are the names of people, humans born with human rights, who may never know justice before the law. It seems to me that our Universal Declaration of Human Rights may have more than a few loopholes, where there is confusion between an ideal world and unattainable ideas.
hmmm, it seems as though for some of us wordpress is publishing in some strange wingding font (it did the same to my post). Are you copying and pasting from pages by any chance? I wonder if it’s some weird apple quirk?
I noticed that too. I copied my work from Google docs. After uploading it, on the top right, I am able to open up the post in “my page” and it shows without the awkward font. I can also view other work normally after opening it separately.