On Rights

Rights. It’s a loaded word; ambiguous, slippery, and easily manipulated, yet it’s a cornerstone of American vocabulary. We have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Republicans preach the right to keep your hard earned money while democrats rattle off facts about healthcare and welfare. I think I have a right to my privacy, but the government thinks they have a right to protect the nation from internal terrorists. We often hear about violations of basic human rights, but do we even know what those rights are anymore?

The problem, as I see it, is that we expect rights to be provided and protected. Suddenly, agency disappears and is replaced by complaints and self righteousness. In my travels I heard the comment from members of social-welfare states that no one ever tries to change things for themselves. The government is just expected to fix problems – the lumbering bureaucracy debates while the public sits, placated by a semblance of action. Where would America, or any country really, be without social activism? Without grass-root movements enacting change in their communities?

In India I saw blinded and disfigured children begging for money. I saw a man, nearly dead, laying on the floor of a train station while the crowd stepped around him, not looking down on what they consider dirty and untouchable according to a caste system. Kids die of preventable diseases and families of 8 live in one room apartments. Women are burned alive if their families don’t pay enough dowry.

If there were such things as basic human rights then those rights wouldn’t be violated all over the world every day. Rights do not exist independent of those who envision and enforce them. Rights are not given. You have to take them. You have to demand them. And you have to believe, honestly, that you deserve them.

I am lucky to be a citizen of a country where we have demanded more rights, and as a result we have a legal system that protects us from many of the more horrible aspects of life. But when people are dying of poverty every second, don’t claim you have the right to lower taxes. If you want change, be an advocate for it, but you will never have the right until you earn it.