A Presentation of Human Rights Violations in the US - Book Report/Review Example

A Presentation of Human Rights Violations in the U.S. I chose to research human rights violations in the United s of America. I chose America,the country that I am proud to live in, because many other of its proud inhabitants overlook the possibility that human rights violations could possibly happen so close to home. When most people consider human rights violations, they think of third-world countries that they've never even stepped foot in, let alone lived in. And although the United States is likely a more comfortable living situation than a third-world country, it certainly has its flaws, and it is imperative that these flaws be addressed. Specifically, the issue I focused on was the case of the poor and their inability to afford things like food and healthcare that are meant to be human rights rather than purchasable luxuries. I used a variety of resources to research human rights and violations of human rights in America. One of the initial resources I used was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which can be viewed online. This document details the specifications of human rights, and can be used to determine whether certain actions are in fact violations of human rights. Jack Donnelly's textbook, Universal Human Rights in Theory & Practice provides theoretical analysis of the articles found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And a textbook by Leonard Beeghley entitled, The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States, outlines some important details about the different classes and the reproduction of class in America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provided a credible resource for facts about working trends in America. Statistics from their website show that contrary to what many people believe, poor people do work; in fact, most work full-time. With statistics about working people who earn less than the poverty threshold as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute on Poverty Research shows that poor people do work and that minimum wage may be too minimal. The Federal Register provided a table that shows exactly what the poverty levels are considered to be, based on the number of people in a family. (See Table 1 in Appendices). On a website called Socialist Worker Online, Alan Maas wrote an article which I found useful in learning about minimum wage and why increases in minimum wage over the years have not been enough. A website from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops helped me consider the expenses poor people face, such as childcare, and why minimum wage often is not enough to support those expenses. Another website put forth by the Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy gave helpful insight in determining the severity of hunger in the U.S. despite how wealthy and productive this country is. An article by Bernstein and Conlin that was published on the website BusinessWeekOnline helped me understand some of the reasons, such as globalization, that are causing the working poor in America to struggle for survival. In order to present my research, I will construct a Power Point slideshow. A picture of an American flag will be presented on the first slide, and will be accompanied by familiar phrases such as "land of the free," and "liberty and justice for all." The flag is such a symbolic image to Americans and invokes strong emotions of pride. During the first slide an audio clip of the Star Spangled Banner will be played for the full effect of those emotions. The information to be disclosed immediately after displaying the flag will make the audience question their previously unquestioned pride. (See Figure 1 in Appendices). The second slide of the presentation will utilize an audio file that plays the sound of glass breaking. The slide will present nothing more than the concise, straight-forward message that America is a place where human rights violations occur. After letting this message sink in with the audience, the presentation will progress to the next slides which will give more information about the details of these human rights violations. Because the audience will now be wondering what kind of human rights violations could possibly happen in the United States, the third slide will answer this question. On the top of the slide bold writing will say that "In America, human rights are not free." In the middle of the slide in regular-sized font it will say that poor people are left out of fundamental human rights like food and healthcare simply because they cannot afford them. The fourth slide will delve deeper into explaining what is happening by explaining who is affected by human rights violations in America. On the left column of the slide there will be a bulleted list of characteristics of the poor people who can't "afford" their human rights. Some of these characteristics are that most poor people do work, many people who work still find themselves under the poverty threshold, people who are categorized as above the poverty threshold are often still too poor to afford necessities, the people affected by the problem are represented across race, gender and age, and that millions of people are affected by this problem all over the country. On the right side of the slide there will be a table that shows poverty level based on the number of people in a family. (See Table 1 in Appendices). Although many people have sympathy for the poor, few people realize that their lack of privileges translates to a violation of human rights. For this reason the next couple of slides will present information about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first article to be examined will be Article 2, because it will remind the audience that even though they just learned whose rights are being violated, it doesn't really matter who; what matters is that they are humans. "Human rights are equal rights: one either is or is not a human being, and therefore has the same human rights as everyone else (or none at all)." (Donnelly, 2003). According to the second article in the declaration, "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948-1998). The next article to be presented will be Article 25: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948-1998). Food, housing, and healthcare need to be ensured to all humans, but many poor people are forced to choose one or two out of the three. Along with the information on this slide there will be a political cartoon by J. Wright that depicts two men; one is sitting in a trash can and says to the other, "Actually, I'm thinking of moving to a hole in the ground - the rent on this place is getting ridiculous." (See Figure 2 in Appendices). The next slide will present Article 23: "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948-1998). Many poor people were born in poor families and were too poor to afford a college education, meaning that poor people are stuck working blue-collar jobs with less favorable conditions, including health hazards, and they are less likely to receive high pay or benefits. Article 3 will serve as the content for the next slide: "Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible on the basis of merit." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948-1998). Although elementary education is free, equal education is not available to members of different social classes; poor children often live in bad neighborhoods and attend under-funded public schools. Furthermore, higher education in this country is not made accessible based on merit, but is rather available to only those who can afford it. The next slide will display Article 4: "Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948-1998). The working poor is often left out of the voting system because they can not afford to take off work to vote. (Beeghley, 2005). Now understanding the true magnitude of these human rights violations, the audience will naturally want to know why they are happening. The tenth slide will answer this imperative question, with a bulleted list of reasons. One reason is because of capitalism and the free market system. Many Americans say they do not want economic equality, because the American Dream has been instilled in them as a moral value. (Beeghley, 2005). Another reason is because of highly unequal income distribution. It is in the United States of America that a man playing with a bat and ball can earn millions of dollars a year but a man who labors with his bear hands to produce essential necessities for an entire society can earn just seven dollars an hour. Yet another reason is because of globalization and the global economy. With cheap labor available overseas, many low-wage jobs are being taken from the working poor who desperately need the money and are being shipped to other countries. (Bernstein & Conlin, 2004). Finally, class reproduction and limited mobility contribute a great deal to the problem. People who are born into a poor family find themselves only with opportunities and resources that reproduce this poor lifestyle. (Beeghley, 2005). People's attitudes toward human rights violations in the U.S. are also a factor in this problem, and must be addressed in the next slide. Many people are inclined to blame the poor people who cannot afford things like food and healthcare, attributing these things to falsely perceived characteristics such as laziness. The next slide will display on the left column a bulleted list of misconceptions under a title that reads, "Myths about the Working Poor." One myth is that people can 'pull themselves up by the bootstrap.' Because of class reproduction and limited mobility, this statement is generally false. Many poor people work and even have full-time jobs, so they are definitely making a decent attempt. Another myth is that there just isn't enough food for everyone, but this is definitely not the case. "The United States has never grown so much food. Scarcity is down, food is cheap, and enough food is produced to provide for every woman, man, and child. Yet, in the world's richest nation, more than 36 million people, including 14 million children, experience hunger." (Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy, 2002). Another myth is that welfare helps. The truth is that welfare assistance barely provides enough for people living in poverty to get by, and it completely leaves out those people who are part of low-income families but not officially categorized as living in poverty. One myth related to welfare is that people receiving welfare benefits are lazy freeloaders, which certainly not the case. People who are in poverty do not want to be in poverty; they are not just doing it because it is "easy." On the right side of the slide a political cartoon by Greenberg will be displayed. This image shows a man dressed as Peter Pan helping a woman and her two children out of a window high above the ground. The woman is wearing a jacket with a label on the back that says 'Welfare Recipients.' The man dressed as Peter Pan says, "Here you go remember, now, think happy thoughts, and, you can fly, you can fly!!!" A small, elephant-version of Tinkerbell floating next to the man guised as Peter Pan says, "We'll just wait here." The woman and children have fearful expressions on their faces. (See Figure 3 in Appendices). The twelfth slide of the presentation will warn the audience that these human rights violations are not a thing of the past but are happening this very moment as we speak, and will continue to happen if no action is taken. After leaving the audience contemplating how long the human rights violations may take place without intervention, the scope of the final slide will be to address how these problems may be fixed. The title of this slide will be "Possible Solutions," and a bulleted list will entail. One solution is to increase minimum wage. Although adjustments have been made to minimum over the years, these adjustments are not believed to have been kept up with inflation; minimum wage is thought to have decreased in true value by 40 percent since 1968. (Maass, 2004). Because neither the poverty level or minimum wage take into consideration the fact that families and especially single parents must spend large sums of money on childcare, another possible solution is that the government could arrange a system of paying parents to take care of their own children. (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2007). Even without factoring in the cost of childcare, the poverty threshold is seen by many as being too low, thus excluding many needy people from getting benefits. (Beeghley, 2005). Perhaps a solution could be to readjust and raise the poverty threshold. Possibly a better solution, however, would be to implement a universal system of healthcare and other human rights, so that everyone would receive their human rights regardless of how much lower or higher their income was than anyone else's income. The United States is actually the only developed nation without a system of universal healthcare. (Beeghley, 2005). Because the United States is a democracy, voting is a necessary step in creating any sort of changes. However, the poor is extremely underrepresented in the polls, probably because they cannot get out of work early or take off from work to vote because they absolutely rely on every dollar they earn. (Beeghley, 2005). This brings us to the potential solution that voting procedures in the U.S. may need to be altered; a national, paid voting holiday might be the answer. Underlying all these possible solutions is one main idea that will be at the last bullet on this slide in bold print: Stronger adherence to human rights. It would truly be helpful for people to consider things like food and healthcare to be human rights rather than luxuries that only people with money can buy. Sources Cited Beeghley, Leonard. The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States. Fourth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.: Boston, 2005. Pgs. 211-271. Bernstein, A. & Conlin, M. (2004). "Working and Poor." BusinessWeek Online. Retrieved September 15, 2008, from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_22/b3885001_mz001.htm. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2005). "A Profile of the Working Poor, 2003." U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved September 14, 2009, from http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2003.pdf. Donnelly, J. Universal Human Rights in Theory & Practice. Second Edition. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, 2003. Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy. (2002). "The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry." Food First Fact Sheet. Retrieved September 14, 2009, from http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/humanrts/hungerinamerica.html. Federal Register, Vol. 70, No. 33, February 18, 2005, pp. 8373-8375 Institute for Research on Poverty. (2006). "Poverty Thresholds and Poverty Guidelines." University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved September 15, 2009. Maass, Alan. (2004). "Working poor in Bush's America." Socialist Worker Online. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-1/502/502_02_WorkingPoor.shtml. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2007). "Poverty USA: The Working Poor." Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Retrieved September 14, 2009, from http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/povfact3.htm. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1948-1998). Retrieved September 13, 2009, from http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html. Appendices Table 1: Number of People in Family 48 Contiguous States & D.C. 1 $9,570 2 $12,830 3 $16,090 4 $19,350 5 $22,610 6 $25,870 7 $29,130 8 $32,390 For each add: $3,260 Federal Register, Vol. 70, No. 33, February 18, 2005, pp. 8373-8375 Figure 1: www.images.google.com Figure 2: www.images.google.com Figure 3: www.images.google.com Read More