No Comment, Quotation — December 22, 2007, 12:00 am

Roosevelt on Human Rights in the Small Places

Where, after all, do universal rights begin? 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 neighborhood 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 concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

Eleanor Roosevelt, “The Great Question,” remarks delivered at the United Nations in New York on March 27, 1958.

Share
Single Page

More from Scott Horton:

No Comment April 12, 2013, 11:11 am

A Final Act for the Guantánamo Theater of the Absurd?

A new report from Seton Hall University exposes government surveillance of attorney-client conversations

No Comment, Six Questions March 18, 2013, 9:00 am

Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East

Rashid Khalidi on how the United States sustains the failure of the Israel-Palestine peace process

No Comment, Six Questions February 4, 2013, 9:00 am

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

Alex Gibney on his documentary investigating the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of child sex-abuse cases

Get access to 163 years of
Harper’s for only $19.97

United States Canada

CATEGORIES

THE CURRENT ISSUE

June 2013

The Separating Sickness

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

How to Make Your Own AR-15

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

Long Division

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

view Table Content

FEATURED ON HARPERS.ORG

[Editor's Note]
Why the AR-15 rifle is here to stay,
the conspiracy theories of Room 237,
and more
[Perspective]
The firearm as emblem of personal sovereignty
“Let’s review our recent national paroxysm about guns, shall we?”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum
[Report]
How to Make Your Own AR-15

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“Even if federal gun-control advocates got everything they wanted, they couldn’t prevent America’s most popular rifle from being made, sold, and used. Understanding why this is true requires an examination of how the firearm is made.”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum
[Harper's Finest]
Wherein the author enrolls in a clinical drug trial
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science.”
Illustration by Ernst Kreidolf
[Report]
Broken Heartland

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“During the early 1990s, farmers throughout the Great Plains began to notice a decline in their wells. Irrigation systems from the Dakotas to Texas dipped, and, in some places, have been abandoned entirely.”
Illustration (detail) by Jeffery Smith

Years of consideration preceding the inclusion of the word “phat” in Random House’s 1996 Compact Unabridged Dictionary:

4

Scientists created crash helmets that stink when cracked and fruit flies to whom blue light smells delicious.

In Belize, a construction company bulldozed a 2,300-year-old Mayan temple to make road fill.

Subscribe to the Weekly Review newsletter. Don’t worry, we won’t sell your email address!

HARPER’S FINEST

Article — From the May 2007 issue

Manufacturing Depression

By

“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”

Subscribe Today