I am an American.  The sanctity of unfettered freedom of speech, assembly, press and religion has been ingrained in me as, it is in all Americans, since my earliest years.  This belief is, in many ways, the heart of who we are as a people.

“We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are endowed by their creator to certain inalienable rights:  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  This we believe as a people.   The political right, center and left know the fastest way to public repudiation is to trample those basic rights.

Americans citizens regularly get in trouble in other countries when they give the authorities the proverbial finger only to find out that they have committed a crime in doing so.  This type of behavior is often seen as American arrogance, but in fact it is not that Americans think they should have that right, they believe every person on earth already has that right. Rather than being arrogant, we tend to be naive to the ways of the rest of the world.

Against that backdrop we look at the execution last year of a women’s rights lawyer for simply stating that women have rights equivalent to men.  We see the Chinese government arrest people for practicing unapproved religions and systemically destroying Christian churches.   We see the a number of governments arrest not only those who practice freedom of the press, but lawyers who defend the journalist. And we hear of death sentences handed out by the governments in several countries on the charge of changing religion or daring to question even the smallest tenant of the official religion.

How can all this be?  Don’t all people know they have the inherent human right to freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion?  It is a puzzlement for us in America. How does a government get away with it?  Such a flagrant violation of the social contract between government and the governed simply must result in the fall of the said government.  Mustn’t it?

I have personally heard leftist professors at Clemson University say that some countries are not ready for human rights.  What does that mean?  Does it mean that the few brutal men with guns get to decide when the vast majority is ready to choose their own leaders?  Whether it is China, Iran, or Zimbabwe, don’t the regular people: farmers, shop keepers, mothers and fathers just trying to earn food and a better life for their children not deserve to be accorded those basic human rights?   Or does the willingness to brutalize and kill also legitimate a small group of people the legitimate arbitrators of who deserves the right to speak, or worship or share ideas?

I say violent sociopaths do not get to decide by force that they are the leader of any nation; such people are usurpers and illegitimate.   I further say that those governments of the world that are legitimized by the vote of their people should not treat those usurpers as legitimate governments.   Over half of the membership of the UN are representatives of illegitimate power thieves.  It is no wonder why the UN cannot improve the human rights conditions of the world.  One might be forced to negotiate with a kidnapper, but that does not mean we would invite them to dinner or give them access to the victim’s trust fund.

Basic human rights are not negotiable. They are not gifts of a government.  They are the natural inalienable rights of all humans.   Sadly people in many countries have been denied this bit of basic humanity for as long there is written record and so they accept what should not be accepted. The Arab Spring uprisings were first a sign that human freedom cannot be suppressed forever, and then evolved into just another exercise in the use of violence to deny human rights to ordinary people. And today we find our government willingly crawling into bed with several illegitimate governments to fight the brutality of a third.  How does such “pragmatism” lead to any sort of consistent stand for human rights? Sadly it does not and only condemns generations to come to more invisible oppression in order to stop the images of glorified oppression on YouTube.

“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”
Mohandas Gandhi