fCharmaine has 2 post(s)

In chapter one of Samuel Myon’s, “The Last Utopia”, and Myon explains how human rights differ from the rights of man.

Going just off of chapter one alone isn’t enough to fully understand what and how human rights differ from the rights of man.  From what I understood, human rights are a transition in a social society.  What continues to puzzle me as we discuss the foundations of human rights is how much religion played a part in defining those rights.  Thinking about what the “religion” should represent, how can then have rights, while still excluding some of your citizens? You have philosophers, theorist, and clergy that believe “rights of man” are unfair, yet the clergy didn’t take into consideration slaves, woman, or non-property owners.  In my opinion, based on the text, human rights were created to protect citizens that were excluded from traditional rights of man.  I feel since I have only read the first chapter, there are a lot of things that may have been explained later that I have missed.  Myon doesn’t clearly define what human rights are, nor does it clearly define what the rights of man are. To me the difference between the rights of man and human rights are the purpose and the individuals it serves, and time.  The rights of man come from the revolutionary era during a time when men felt entitled, and privilege to things that others were not. For example, because I am a property owner and you’re not, I am entitled to have certain necessities and resources that you are not because you don’t own property. Human rights are people standing up against this entitlement and privilege and saying we are all humans and should all have access.  In today’s society I feel we still have what can be considered the “rights of man” and then “human rights”.  In modern time our government regulates human rights and we laws to “protect” against it. At the same time, we still have people show execute their “rights of men”, and feel certain types of people shouldn’t have the same rights as them because of race, religion, gender and the list goes on.  The dilemma is now, what do you do when the government as chosen to execute their “rights of men”?

My name is Charmaine Bennett. I have a seven year old son named Dylan, and he’s in the second grade. This is my fourth semester at CWE. My concentration is in Childhood Studies. After I graduate I plan to attend graduate school either for Special Education or Social Work. Maybe both. I know that I want to work in the educational field, just not fully sure in what aspect. I would love to be a Middle a School guidence counselor. I currently work in a middle school in harlem, and I see some of the things these students go through and I wpuld love to help. On the other hand, my principal wants me to become a Special Education Intervention Specialist. Which wouldn’t be bad since i currently work as a ELA Teacher Intern, just undecided I guess. What drew me to this class is my fascination with women’s rights both pass and present. With this pass election i thiught it would be the perfect time to take a class like this. I recently participated in the Womens March in NYC. It was an empowering moment for me to see not just women from all walks of life, but men as well. That experience made me even more excited about starting this class and all of the things I will learn, and taking what I’ve learned and being able to share it with others.

In the introduction of “Inventing Human Rights” by Lynn Hunt (2007), I’m beginning to see where the first conceptions of humans started. The whole concept of human rights seems to be more perception based than anything else.As far back as the Declaration of Independence the wording is where the perception comes to play. The perception of what is self evident? If it is truly self evident that we are all equal than how can it be questioned? The word men is repeated over and over throughout the Declaration of Independence, but not in terms of man kind, to include everyone, but to only include men. Not all men, white men, men with property. Even the word men, excluded men? This is an intersting concept to me. Not only were women excluded, free blacks were also excluded. The fact that one can be considered free, yet not have equal rights to other men is ridiculous. This helps me to conceptualize why we have to fight so hard for equal rights for all.