Opinion |

Human rights day to offer opportunity to ponder issues at home

By Alexander Aman

Posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007, 12:00 am

Dec. 10, 2007 marks the 59th International Human Rights Day (IHRD). I challenge us all to know and remember this day and to work to expand our understanding of human rights and the struggles to support them.

Dignitaries and policymakers will reaffirm their resolve and TV news shows will highlight conditions around the world, as they have done in past years. In 2005, the U.S. government made a public statement that, “the United States salutes those around the world who struggle to defend, protect and promote the fundamental freedoms that are the birthright of all mankind.”

This year we find ourselves in a time of seemingly endless international unrest in places like Pakistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq and in the streets of France. Few can, or will, deny the value of shining light on these situations and struggling to discover and prevent human rights abuses worldwide. On the other hand, some would say we do not need to look far.

It can be difficult to realize that looking and seeing are not the same. Can we see what is in our backyard? It takes a lot of strength and humility to see what many would not acknowledge. Days like International Human Rights Day exist, however, so that we might challenge ourselves to find that strength.

I challenge us to look to New Orleans, La. and see what is there.

How long has it been since residents of New Orleans had their lives swept away in the torrent of a manmade disaster? How long has it been since you heard about the displaced New Orleans residents on the news? How long would you wait for help that might never come?

Pre-Hurricane Katrina there were approximately 5,200 families in public housing in addition to 2,000 low-income units temporarily vacant due renovations. There are now only 1,600 families in public housing.

Why? Did they not want to come back? Maybe the answer can be found in the stories of residents shoveling mud and debris out of their homes while risking arrest for “trespassing.” Or in tales of New Orleans residents being refused aid because they need federally accepted ID and the only copies they have are their birth certificates buried in the mud in the apartment they are not allowed back into.

By no later than Dec. 18, demolition will begin on 3,861 of the current 4,605 low-income public housing units. They will be replaced with 744 low-income public housing units, a reduction of about 82 percent. This will, in effect, eliminate the right of low-income residents to return home.

Some may argue that New Orleans should not be rebuilt at all. The fact is that New Orleans is going to be rebuilt. The real question is, “Who should have the right to live there?”

On Dec. 10, we will hear stories and see pictures of those in Sri Lanka, Somalia, Sudan and Palestine forced to flee their homes. We will hear of houses destroyed and entire communities living in camps unable to return home. We may even hear about the right of return for displaced people. Are these images so different from those after the flood in New Orleans? Are those stories of suffering and hardship unlike those of the people from the Ninth Ward?

I am asking you. Are they?

I challenge us all on Dec. 10 to form an opinion on this issue and similar issues around the world. Learn the stories of those still without homes or without any state or federal aid struggling to return to New Orleans. Learn the stories of those left without homes sleeping on the steps of city hall. Think of your own family and wonder if they should have the right to return if your town was destroyed. I challenge us to look and see with a humble strength that goes deeper than politics and social context.

Care enough to have an educated opinion. Do not forget the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Alexander Aman is a resident assistant in Smith House.