Thousands of Bay Area residents, including members of the San Francisco Bay Times team, have taken to the streets to call for peace and an end to war after Russia launched an unprovoked full-scale invasion of the Eastern European nation of Ukraine on February 24. As of this writing, 2000 plus civilians have been killed during the invasion, according to Ukrainian government estimates. The actual death toll may never be fully determined, given the massive scale of Russia’s violent acts under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. Over two million individuals were forced to flee Ukraine, and that number could climb up to some 5 million—a humanitarian crisis at a scale in Europe not seen since World War II.
On March 6, demonstrators also took a stand in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 57th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. On that day in 1965, police attacked civil rights movement demonstrators as they were crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge attempting to march to Montgomery to demand voting rights.
The fight for voting rights continues, with efforts now underway to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, legislation that was proposed in 2021. The Act addresses matters such as redistricting, multi-lingual voting materials, and voter I.D. requirements. Vice President Kamala Harris attended the March 6th event, along with civil rights and community leaders, and reinforced that the Biden-Harris administration is committed to passing federal legislation to protect the right to vote.
LGBTQ, racial, and other social justice concerns—often intersecting—inherently form a part of these overarching struggles. The related movements are unfortunately vulnerable to those who wish to magnify and maintain divisions in the U.S. and Europe, such as Russia’s leadership. Even before last month’s attack on Ukraine, Russia was already identified by NATO StratCom COE as being a world leader in social media network manipulation. This manipulation is happening right now, weakening civil rights movements and the voice for #StandWithUkraine.
“United we stand, divided we fall” therefore rings truer than ever at this difficult time when many are fighting for their very lives and for fundamental human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, prepared by the United Nations, outlines many of the basic rights that cut across national boundaries and other divisions. It begins:
“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people … “
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: https://tinyurl.com/2p8r2hne
Published on March 10, 2022
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