Human Rights Day: No Rose-Colored Glasses, but Cautious Hope

With a tinge more optimism than I've felt this week, and with much greater eloquence, Susan Morgan at the Huffington Post joins the chorus of calls for new American leadership to end genocide, and to promote human rights more generally:

"In Christiane Amanpour's powerful new documentary on genocide, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, Elie Weisel states, 'When there is a crisis, a moral crisis, human rights should become the number one preoccupation for the American administration.' Playing devil's advocate, Amanpour asks, 'What if the Americans say 'Why us? Why is that fair?' He replies, "Because the whole world will say, 'if America doesn't, why should we?'

"Weisel speaks the truth. This week, on December 10, the international community recognizes the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For America, the leader of the free world and a beacon of hope to oppressed and impoverished people around the globe, this anniversary is a solemn reminder of the ideals we stand for and the moral responsibilities we have abdicated for far too long."

Morgan is appropriately realistic about our failures to uphold the principles of the declaration, but sees the opportunity for change:

"The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us at this timely moment in American history that these ideals can and should extend beyond the borders of our own country to all the citizens of the world."

It's been a long hard day in genocide/mass atrocity work, as it invariably always is, and it's easy to let pessimism take over one's thoughts. However, I do agree that we now find ourselves in a unique moment, where the long-established and deeply-entrenched rules-of-the-game are suddenly up for revision, the ground is shaking beneath the feet of the status quo, and we have a real opportunity to redefine America's role in the world.

Such moments are often fleeting, and exceedingly rare, and can always go in a variety of directions. So what will our new definition be? A few options, for Mr. Merriam-Webster:

a.) America: Still jerks. Old habits die hard.

b.) America: Scared by controversy, toed the middle ground and did nothing.

c.) America: Takes risks to stand up for her principles and promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. (Or, at the very least, takes risks to ensure that a-hole governments stop knocking off their own citizens.)

Which do you choose?