Remembrance

The 11th November in the United Kingdom is Remembrance Day.  This date was chosen because on 11th November 1918 an Armistice was signed with Germany.  Since World War 1, the United Kingdom has been involved in World War 2 and in numerous other military campaigns including, very recently, controversial involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan.  World War 2 brought about a recognition that human rights need to be recognised and protected.  The Universal of Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights are attempts to achieve such recognition and protection.

Eleanor Roosevelt asked - "Where do human rights begin?"  Her answer was - "In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.  Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works.  Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.  Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.  Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

Today, let us think of those who have lost their loved ones in war.  In the words of Robert Burns - "A mother's lament for the death of her son" -

Fate gave the word, the arrow sped,

And pierc'd my darling's heart;

And with him all the joys are fled

Life can to me impart.