UN

Today we celebrate international Human Rights Day in honor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was signed on December 10th, 1948. With this shared vision acknowledging we are all members of the human family, FOR’s executive director Mark Johnson is currently leading a 10-member delegation in Iran.  This is the kind of grassroots peacemaking work that is made possible by your support of FOR.

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Today marks the 60th (!) anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

According to Wikipedia:

When the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany became apparent after the Second World War, the consensus within the world community was that the United Nations Charter did not sufficiently define the rights it referenced. A universal declaration that specified the rights of individuals was necessary. Canadian John Peters Humphrey was [the principal drafter], assisted by Eleanor Roosevelt of the United States, Jacques Maritain and René Cassin of France, Charles Malik of Lebanon, and P. C. Chang of the Republic of China, among others. The proclamation was ratified during the General Assembly on 10 December 1948 by a vote of 48 in favour, 0 against, with 8 abstentions.

- Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But let's not just take their word for it. You'll find the text of what the Guinness Book of World records describes as "the most translated document in the world" after the jump...

The cover of the bulletin said it all, and it was probably too much. "East West Dialogue; Interfaith Encounter, A time of dialogue and prayerful reflection." Dialogue, Encounter, Reflection: the terms suggests the ambivalence of those planning and those party to the convocation, more than 100 representatives of religious communities, congregations, adjudicatories, alliances, mostly Christian. Do we want to explore together, confront one another, or inform our own search for truth?

I love this time of September! In Minnesota, where I live, it is the time of year for holding on and letting go of The Lake. This means both the experience – swimming, boating, beaching – and the idea itself, that is, the idea of vacation, la vida facil, a perpetual summer.

When I was a kid, we would wait for my Dad to get home from teaching high school, probably around 4 in the afternoon, and then assess the situation: Can we go the lake another day? This was the holding on.