From: LASAGA@corral.uwyo.edu (LASAGA)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: Editorial on Human Rights (Denver Post article)
Date: 21 Jan 1993 00:00:45 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu




The following is from _The Denver Post_ (Sunday, Jan 17, 1993), 
page D1 ("Perspectives" section).  

Editorial is reprinted here without permission:

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"Human Rights in Colorado"

   Americans tend to think of human rights as an issue that mainly
involves foreigners.  Blacks in South Africa, Indians in Guatemala,
Muslims in Serbia, Kurds in Iraq--it's people like these whom we regard
as manifestly oppressed.

   But the United States clearly has some human rights problems of its
own, springing from the mistreatment of the most vulnerable among us.
And while these unfortunate Americans may not be suffering from deprivation
of food and other basic necessities--as the victims of wars in Somalia and
Bosnia are, for example--they surely warrant our concern.

  The persecution of minority groups is painfully evident even in 
Colorado, where the passage of Amendment 2 has brought of the closet an
alarming amount of hostility toward homosexuals.  But while this 
mean-spirited law needs to be repealed, whether the current boycott 
continues or not, the attitude it reflects is hardly an isolated phenomenon.

   Indeed, the anti-gay sentiment dredged up by the November vote may
be only the most obvious evidence of a more general failure on the part of
Americans to treat one another with respect, fairness and an appreciation
for individual differences.

   Another indication is the continuing specter of police mistreatment
of minorities, as demonstrated so vividly by the videotaped beating of
black motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles.  Cops in the Denver area may
not be quite so notorious, but they are hardly immune to charges of
brutality and harassment.  Hence it will be important over the next
year to monitor the performance of Denver's newly appointed police review 
commission, which has been set up to ensure that people are treated
fairly on the streets.
 
   The treatment of people in the workplace should be of similar concern.
Women certainly deserve more protection from sexual harassment, which
may be declining but hasn't disappeared in the wake of the Clarence Thomas
affair.  Both men and women, however, can face discrimination on the basis
of age, race, physical disability or marital status, and these issues must
be addressed as well--chiefly by the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission, which under the Clinton administration should be far more 
aggressive in fulfilling its mandate.

   People's religious differences, too, need to be more rigorously
respected in this increasingly diverse society.  The basic freedom to
practice one's faith without interference by government carries with it
a corresponding right to be protected from intimidation by non-believers,
and this has been affirmed by the passage of laws against hate crimes.

   But laws alone won't keep the Klansmen, the neo-Nazis and their 
detestable brethren at bay.  Americans of all ages but especially
children, must be encouraged to say no to bigotry in the 1990s just as
they were urged to say no to drugs in the '80s.

   In short, while basic human rights may not be violated as egregiously
in this country as in some countries abroad, they must be defended with 
just as much vigilance.  Where intolerance becomes the norm, tyranny can
find a home.

-end of editorial-
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