A Sparrow's Thoughts... (Number Seven)
when we sit numbly staring
at the six o'clock news...
at the cops in riot gear
dispersing the student protesters...
protesting against Wall Street excess,
against the greed of big business,
against the destructive thrusts of big oil,
against the wars over seas...
against human rights being taken,
against the lie we're being fed...
when these young people are beaten,
gassed, and arrested for standing up
for their ideals of freedom...
do we remember that these are our children?
do we know?
even more, do we remember,
when we were young and believed?
the anti-war protests,
the civil rights marches,
women's rights, farmworker's rights...
when we dared to believe we could
change the world...
we live again in our children!
do we understand this?
are we just going to sit still and watch?
are we dead?
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Related quotes
Dont You Think It's Time?
children have rights,
women have rights.
lovers have rights.
people of all religions,
and even atheists have rights.
people of all colors,
speaking every language have rights.
trees and rivers have rights.
cats and dogs have rights.
cattle have rights,
homeless people have rights.
prisoners have rights.
democrats and republicans have rights,
even socialists have rights.
the jobless have rights,
old people have rights...
and the hungry have
the right to be fed!
damnit! dont you think it's time?
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Deep Level Concern
deep level concern;
our own national parks
used as collateral
on loans from China!
water rights to the Great Lakes,
and other bodies of water here...
sold to China!
our jobs, Joe blue collar working
families.... sold to China!
our oil profiteer wars,
financed by China!
sleeping with the country
with the worst human rights record,
dancing with the devil!
and now, our own police forces
committing acts of violence
and oppression against Americans!
against American people protesting,
standing up for freedom and equality!
standing against the profiteers!
reacting the same way,
and with the same types of oppression,
as China!
our rights,
...our freedom,
......our dignity.
even our rights to work and survive....
sold to....
.....and even worse,
...........sold by!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Equal Rights,2011
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love.
equal rights to believe,
to speak out, to stand up
and be counted.
equal rights to work,
equal rights to study.
equal rights to build.
equal rights to profess faith,
equal rights to pray.
equal rights to give...
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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It was the best route to get folks to understand segregation fast. Civil rights and women's rights had a clear history. Making the transition to rights for people with disabilities became easier because we had the history of the other two.
quote by Major Owens
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The List!
i came to age
in the land of Nixon,
and J Edgar Hoover....
when if you even breathed
the truth you made the lists,
the lists that no one saw!
from the America of LBJ,
the slaughter of the Kennedys',
and Martin Luther King....
and open war on the students
at Kent State who dared to stand....
against an unholy war....
civil rights, flag burnings,
draft card burnings....
women's rights, and change....
that we didnt finish....
now our own children stand
up in protest against a way
of life that isnt living....
and again the police
and the riot squads....
will there be lists this time?
unholy.....unholy........unholy
wars.. .....lifestyles.....'justice'!
put me on the list!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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We'll Drink A Toast
We'll drink a toast to the bra burners and the noble suffragette
The Emily Pankhurst's of this World we ought not to forget
She died under horses hooves a martyr for Womens Rights
In the history of Womankind one of the leading lights.
We'll drink a toast to the women libbers a revolt amongst suppressed women they inspired
They fought for years for equal rights for women they ought to be admired
In street protests they burned their bras in their fight for equality to men
On their eforts for their gender rights give them ten out of ten.
We'll drink a toast to Womankind the mothers of today
Though men 'twould seem still rule the World of women one can say
That one day they will rule Planet Earth and peace will be Worldwide
If mothers only had their way their sons in wars would not have died.
We'll drink a toast to the fairer sex to women everywhere
Their anger levels very low when to men them you compare
In some Countries around the World today women to men do not have equal rights
Though women in many Countries have become great leaders and have scaled the success heights.
poem by Francis Duggan
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Freedom Is Not Free
Per an erudite analysis of my country's history,
One thing is sure… my freedom is not free!
I do what I want and criticize those who lead.
My rights are assured because they're decreed.
These rights were purchased with blood and tears
By my forefathers and soldiers today who, through death and fears,
Have had the courage to fight for rights they believed
Were and are necessary to maintain freedom they conceived.
These rights I demand and the freedoms I assume
Are in fact not automatic and can easily spell doom.
If I'm too busy with my little world to care about my nation,
My leaders' own self interest can only lead to devastation.
My rights have obligations to keep me and my country free
If I'm too busy to exercise them, I'll be part of a tremulous tragedy.
poem by Gregory Huyette
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Racism Poem - Where Racism matters
i live in a country
multi racial in nature
where certain communities
enjoy special rights
the politicians keep asking
why there is racial polarisation
well, if i have special rights
i will make sure i really
get the best deal of it all
i will not be a stupid fool
or even modest
no two way about it
that includes telling others
to be aware that they do
not have special rights
drawing the line doubly clear
just in case they
infringe on these rights
rights to everything special
housing, education,
medication, career advances
etc, etc, etc
and of course
i would make
every citizen aware
they are living in a society
where racism matters
because it is a matter
of life and death
for those with special rights
and of course for those
without the rights to
keep decently quiet about it
or else these special rights
could mean the rights
to take away things
dearest to them
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Against Their Human Rights
How many times have I heard them say
it’s against his human rights
when a killer goes to court?
Hey, but what about the victim
and his or her family.
Don’t they have human rights too?
Is it only the killers who have human rights?
It really makes you wonder.
They commit a crime against
someone innocent in our society.
Then you get some idiot
starts shouting their punishment
is against their human rights.
Now what would happen if that idiot
lost a family member to some killer?
Would they still be shouting
and waving banners about his human rights?
I sincerely doubt it;
they’d probably say like a lot of us
that the killer has no human rights.
They forfeited them the day
they took someone’s life.
We may forgive them
for what they do,
but they must still take the punishment
the Courts of the land hand down.
13 February 2008
poem by David Harris
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Human rights in Islam are human rights in the light of Islam, Islam as the outward medium through which its believers attain their true value, through which is realized the right to right(s) and the right to truth.
Mohammed Allal Sinaceur in Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights: Islamic Tradition and Human Rights (1986)
Submitted by Simona Enache
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Freedom Riders
we are born to fight cause freedom
we ride forth constantly in cause freedom
we must speak fight for all who cannot
or will not fight
cause freedom
for themselves
but cause freedom
is not fighting deception oil wars
cause freedom is human rights
human rights regardless
of age race religion gender
for all citizens of this planet
poem by Terence George Craddock
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There is no contradiction between effective law enforcement and respect for civil and human rights. Dr. King did not stir us to move for our civil rights to have them taken away in these kinds of fashions.
quote by Dorothy Height
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Man Who Took On Big Brother
The man who stand for human rights, freedom and justice
Is now in jail perhaps for a long stay
The authorities say he an an agitator
The only reason he is locked away.
He was a brave man to take on big brother
For those who take on big brother are few
And though he may spend many years behind bars
To a higher human principle he is true.
He could have kept his mouth shut like me and others
For human rights is not a popular thing
Instead he spoke his mind and got in trouble
And the wrath of big brother upon himself did bring.
He is that man who dared to take on big brother
But for his brave stand he is in jail today
And for speaking out for human rights and justice
His loss of freedom is the price he pay.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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As a civil rights leader, Mrs. King's vision of racial peace and nonviolent social change was a fortifying staple in advancing the civil rights movement.
quote by James T. Walsh
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Political Arena
It was a political arena that he was in
A political arena where they said he could not win.
He was fighting for the rights of man
Someone had to take a stand.
His religious rights were being denied
They said he was a war activist which was a lie.
He believed in the commandment “thou shall not kill”
They wanted to take away his rights of “ free will”.
So his lawyer went to court, and fought
With everything that he was taught.
He knew he had a battle up ahead
But it was a fight he did not dread.
Civil rights were being denied
Freedom to all should apply.
They went to court the very next day
He knew the jury he would have to sway.
He started debating how he should start
When a deep feeling pierced his heart.
He told the jury: if this had been GODS will
He would have taught us how to kill.
Can you find it in your heart to take another mans life
And leave a person without a husband, family, children, wife.
Those words penetrated deep into their minds.
It did not take them very much time.
“ NOT GUILTY” we the jury do find.
poem by Louis Rams
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How, then, can the rights of three men exceed the rights of two men? In what possible way can the rights of three men absorb the rights of two men, and make them as if they had never existed.
quote by Auberon Herbert
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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American Flag
i've had mixed feelings
about the American flag
ever since they lowered it
for President Kennedy...
it took a beating during
the civil rights movement.
and then there was Vietnam,
all the atrocities, the lies,
the wasted deaths...
the marches, the protests,
the Kent State killings...
and the flag was burned
in anger, and i understood
the anger
and now the corporate takeover,
the loss of human rights,
the loss of dignity, and hope
how many deaths does it take?
JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King
forty thousand plus in Vietnam
how many in the lying oil wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan?
how many homeless and jobless
does it take?
how many migrant workers treated
like animals?
how many old people have to lose
the benefits they've worked for?
and i think back to my old hero,
Thomas Jefferson what would he say?
maybe something like this:
'the real American flag isnt made of cloth,
it's drawn on the backs of the American workers.
male and female of all races and religions,
the people that built this country
the heart blood of this country.
when you put these people down
with your greed, your lies, your apathy
then you lower the flag.
and it can never be raised again
till all Americans walk heads up together
with hope till all have an equal opportunity
to live and be in freedom
until such day you have no flag! '
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Girls Have Rights Too
Girls must have the undeniable rights to speak,
And the God-given rights to choose and pick.
Girls must have the rights to be educated,
To be respected and to be protected.
Girls are human beings too;
Girls must have all the rights too.
Girls must have the rights to fight
For respect, comfort and decency.
Girls like boys are bright,
Girls must be able to taste the fruit of equality.
Girls are people too,
Girls are wonderful too.
Education is the light at the end of the tunnel,
And ignorance is the moon at the bottom of the funnel.
Education is the hope that triggers better opportunities,
It is also the antidote that defeats all sorts of disease.
Therefore, girls must have the rights to be educated,
To be protected and to be respected.
poem by Hebert Logerie
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The human rights community has focused very narrowly on political and civil rights for many decades, and with reason, but now we have to ask how can we broaden the view.
quote by Paul Farmer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to ""create"" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.
quote by William J. Brennan, Jr.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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