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“Human rights? Whatever.”
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Those are three specific unalienable rights Thomas Jefferson wrote into our sacrosanct Declaration of Independence.
They seem so simple: Life. Liberty. Pursuit of happiness.
Yet they have remained the subject of perpetual debate, legislation, and policy the past 239 years, as it is the work of a functional democratic government to provide and protect conditions that preserve our rights; and it is up to us to hold our government accountable in its duty to uphold them.
Human rights are those fundamental to common decency. They safeguard people’s individual freedom to write their own destiny without fear of them being arbitrarily revoked.
But what happens when the line between human rights and privileges is blurred? What happens when those in power seek to redefine “rights” in order to justify its own craven lawlessness?
Earlier this month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the convicted felon illegitimately occupying the Oval Office is exploring “legal” pathways to abduct and disappear U.S. citizens to foreign concentration camps, like Cecot prison in El Salvador where Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being unlawfully detained, and like Rumeysa Ozturk, Mahmoud Khalil, and Mohsen Mahdawi.
