Human rights for people living in the richest, most powerful country in history

Every year, we celebrate human rights. We celebrate it on December 10 because that’s the date in 1948 when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first-ever global declaration detailing every person’s basic rights and fundamental freedoms. 

In 1948, the world had finally begun to recover from a genocide and the largest, deadliest war in modern history. We needed a way forward, an agreement between all people that said all people have rights.

We have done amazing things when we’ve come together to support one another. This year alone, we’ve seen enormous public pushback against a lawless Trump Administration that has done anything and everything in its power to disregard, not only rights given to people living and working in the United States by our constitution, but basic human rights laid out in a document by a recent generation only 76 years ago.

Every person deserves enough to eat, a roof over their head, and healthcare. You shouldn’t need to prove your worth to access any of those three things — as a person, you deserve security in those things. 

While the President and Congressional Republicans work hard to make these three things harder to access, I’ll keep fighting to make them accessible to everyone who needs assistance. Love thy neighbor isn’t just a passage in a book; it’s a phrase to live by.

Today, in honor of a global declaration of basic human rights, I’m as committed as I’ve ever been to continue fighting so that in the richest, most powerful country in the history of mankind, nobody has to go hungry, unhoused, or without healthcare.

Together, forward.

Jim