Human Rights Are More Important than Ever
By Xavier Botana
December is Human Rights Month. It’s a time for us to
commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the
United Nations General Assembly in 1948, and to do our part to reaffirm the
dignity and worth of every human being by standing up for human rights. Recent events
have brought the importance of protecting human rights into clearer focus for
me than ever before.
One of the events that got me thinking more about human
rights was the death of Fidel Castro. I’m a Cuban American who was born in
Castro’s Cuba. My son has been working on a school project about Cuba for his
Spanish class. As part of his assignment,
he has been interviewing people whose life was impacted by Castro’s rise to
power. On Black Friday, he spent over an hour “skyping” with my older brother,
the only living member of my family that lived in pre-Castro Cuba. The next
morning we woke to the news that Castro was dead.
The conversation with my brother was wide-ranging, and I
learned things I didn’t know about the revolution and its impact on my family. What
wasn’t new was the pervasive sense that my family left Cuba at some peril. Not
only did my family leave everything that they had worked to build over many
years behind, but in doing so, they entrusted their future to strangers. My
parents’ greatest fear was that their children would be taken away and forced
to work the sugar harvest and, in the process, brainwashed by the revolution.
Flight attendants carried me and my infant brother to family
who had left before us and would take care of us until my parents were able to
leave. A generous country – the United States – welcomed all of us and gave us
hope and a future. We were fortunate to be born at a time when we were able to
come to this country and be afforded great opportunities. And I am grateful for that every day.
It also makes watching the images of what is happening
elsewhere in the world – places such as Syria, China, Russia, Kenya and
Pakistan – stark reminders that the freedoms that we enjoy are not universal. Most
importantly, it makes the tone of current conversations about immigration dissonant
and difficult to reconcile with my own experiences.
Many of the children in the Portland Public Schools, Maine’s
largest and most diverse school district, come to us fleeing oppression or
worse. Regardless of where they come from – regions such as Central Africa or
the Middle East or from former Russian republics – the themes in their stories are
universal. They come to us hoping for the same opportunities my
family enjoyed. They and their families want to be able to go to school, work
hard, make their way and, in time, give back to this amazing country.
Last month, I visited the Casco Bay High School Senior
Exhibition “Pop-up Museum” on Heroes of the Middle East. Our CBHS students
researched the stories of scores of men and women who have fought for human
rights in that region, often at a great price. Through their research, our
students learned how the hope for human dignity lives on even in the most
inhospitable settings. Walking through the exhibits, I was proud of the depth
of understanding their work displayed. I was most proud of the affirmation and
commitment to understanding those experiences that was evident in their work.
And, above all, I am proud to lead a school district where I
am confident that our schools are, and will continue to be, welcoming and
supportive places for those seeking the rights expressed by the United Nations
resolution that we commemorate this month. I can only hope that our country
will continue to be that kind of place as well.
