By Joseph Plummer
The 74th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set by the United Nations will be December 10, 2022. The document was championed by and typically associated with Eleanor Roosevelt, though it was drafted by a Canadian, John Humphrey. In this Sunday’s service, philosopher Cliff DuRand will discuss the record of the United States as an upholder of economic and political rights declared in this historic document.
In the United States, its provisions on political rights are often celebrated and its institutions and leaders hold good records in upholding them. But provisions for economic rights are widely ignored because the United States does not observe them. For example, it declares that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services.”
“We fall far short on this count,” DuRand asserts, “even while most American citizens believe everyone should have those rights, our economic system doesn’t allow for them.”
A resident of San Miguel, DuRand is a founder of the Center for Global Justice. Durand was a civil rights activist in the 1960s and taught for 40 years at Morgan State University in Baltimore, an HBCU (historically black college and university). As a free thinker, he has been sensitive to the exercise of free speech and the right to dissent and as an advocate of social justice, he has championed the downtrodden. He is alarmed at the current era’s erosion of human rights at the hands of government and powerful corporations, which both threaten human liberty in new ways.
Unitarian Universalism (UU) is a liberal faith inviting its community to gather around a set of harmonizing values and principles for living. Our UU Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientations, and gender identities. Belief in a divinity is not the central issue around which we gather for worship and generous action. Rather, we come together with a belief in community, love, compassion, social justice, reverence for nature, and the spirituality of music, all within the interconnected web of existence.
UUFSMA donates generously to support nonprofit organizations that provide health, educational, and environmental services for underserved communities in the San Miguel region. Please support this work by clicking on the website home page Donate button.
To participate in our online Sunday Service, visit www.uufsma.org and click on the Zoom Service button on the home page. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in from anywhere Sunday mornings between 10:15 and 10:25am CST. Enjoy previous services at https://www.youtube.com/UUFSMA.
In addition to continuing live Zoom services, UUFSMA has returned to in-person Sunday services. Reservations are no longer necessary.
*Joseph Plummer is the UUFSMA Board Secretary
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Sunday Service
“Reflections on Human Rights Today”
Speaker: Cliff DuRand
Sun, Dec 4, 10:30am
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040
Password: 294513
