Mountain View doesn't need to import ideas from the UN on how to run this city in a compassionate way. The Constitution says that people have the right to "pursue" happiness not the right to security. The idea that "security" is a basic human right is a fantasy as there is no security in this life, there is only opportunity to succeed or fail.

The people in Mountain View need the freedom to pursue happiness and to succeed in life. They need to local government to listen to them and implement ideas and plans that work for our city and the people in it. They don't need some big UN advice document as a foot in the door for greater influence from outside entities that do not particularly care about Mountain View, CA. but only in advancing their own causes their own ways.

This article is supplemented by an editorial in the July 16 Voice. The newspaper previously ran an article and then an editorial in March promoting the proposal that Mountain View become a "human rights city" that has adopted "principles" in a 1948 UN resolution - including socialist entitlements (see articles 22-29). Not reported in the Voice is a HIDDEN AGENDA of some to use the idea that all humans have the same rights to legalize otherwise illegal immigration. That HIDDEN AGENDA is evident in two documents not mentioned in the Voice. One is the staff report for the May 7 meeting of the Human Relations Commission (HRC). The other is a letter dated May 6 to the HRC from a San Jose based immigrants rights group.

Gary's opinion is correct - IT'S SOCIALISM.

It's not about "rights" but about "circumventing the Constitution" and "redistribution of wealth through higher fees imposed on those who are here legally working and giving to the community to those who are not."

This speaks volumes about City Staff and Council Members who support this ideology.

Don't let their glib rhetoric fool you - read the document.

Silly idea, not for the "Oh my god this is socialism" slogan repeating crowd, but for truly rational reasons like the one brought up by the Mayor. Do we need to sign a document declaring it OK to proceed through an intersection when the light turns green too?

That the City of Mountain View celebrates Human Rights is a positive statement of the values of a community.

To label this or make fun of this is to denigrate the values articulated in support of human rights.

With human trafficking, gangs working to isolate and indoctrinate youth and other nefarious activities impacting Mt. View and the valley, I am in support of standing up for human rights.

Speaking entirely on my own behalf, I would first like to state that I strongly object to the characterization of those who disapprove of the UDHR as "skeptics" as it is a dismissive term intended to belittle and marginalize those who have valid objections.

Second, I was opposed to this from the very beginning and tried several times to have the issue tabled. I pointed out the fact that the government cannot grant rights, they can only take them away. A right is something that one is entitled to from birth and that any responsible government must act to secure such as the right to live and the right to be free.

We as citizens invest certain powers in our government to ensure that those rights are protected by all necessary means up to and including force (i.e police and military).

No one has a right to housing. Let me be clear about this, no one should be discriminated against for any reason when it comes to housing, but if housing is a right, then the government must provide housing for all those who want it. If they do not, then it cannot be said that it is a right. People should work and earn the money necessary to obtain the housing that they desire and the government, in a caring society should take whatever steps it can to assist people with locating and obtaining the housing people desire when possible, but it is not obligated to do so.

The government also cannot grant dignity to people. No one is dignified by receiving everything they want for free. Dignity comes from within and one's own feelings of self-worth and accomplishment. The thinking that the government bestows dignity upon people by divvying the resources of others and then handing them out to those deemed worthy is exactly the type of wrong-headed thinking that many of the UN articles exemplify.

I have included below the text of an e-mail that I sent to the City Council prior to the meeting. I was unable to attend because I am out of the country until the end of the month and the meeting was scheduled after I had already purchased my tickets:


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Web Link

What is a right?

A right is something that you are entitled to by birth such as the right to life or the right to be free.

In order to be meaningful rights must be enforced. For example, you may have a right to be free, but if you are forced to live as a slave, then what true meaning does that right truly have? Even if most people agreed that slavery was bad, there has to be some mechanism to enforce the right of a person to be free, beginning with laws and up to and including the use of force.



What are Human Rights?

According to the UN Website:

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.


Universal and inalienable

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948, has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems.

Human rights are inalienable. They should not be taken away, except in specific situations and according to due process. For example, the right to liberty may be restricted if a person is found guilty of a crime by a court of law.

Interdependent and indivisible

All human rights are indivisible, whether they are civil and political rights, such as the right to life, equality before the law and freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to work, social security and education , or collective rights, such as the rights to development and self-determination, are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The improvement of one right facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of one right adversely affects the others.

Both Rights and Obligations

Human rights entail both rights and obligations. States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfill human rights. The obligation to respect means that States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to fulfill means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights. At the individual level, while we are entitled our human rights, we should also respect the human rights of others.

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If with regard to the State, the State is interpreted as only the Federal Government, then these obligations can only be fulfilled by the Federal Government. If State is interpreted as the state in which one lives, such as California or New York, then the same applies to government at the State level. If however the state is interpreted as all levels of government front the federal to the local level, then all levels of government must participate and therefore are obligated by law to fulfill all the requirements heretofore stated.

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If Human Rights have no enforcement mechanism then what good are they? To say that Mountain View is a Human Rights City and to then fail to enforce those rights is meaningless.

There are several items in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that I think would be problematic if this resolution is adopted and implemented such as:

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

My understanding of this is that an International Social Security fund would be established whereby the monetary resources of all countries would be redistributed based on the strength of their economies. I do not believe this type of redistribution to be ethical nor moral as each time it has been attempted, it has resulted in massive economic and social failures such as Russia and Nazi Germany.







Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.


If one has the right to work and to free choice of employment, then does that not mean that everyone who wants a job is entitled to one, and that if they are unable to find work through their own means, then the State (or in this case city) must not only provide a job, but the job that one chooses for oneself?

If one has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, who makes that determination? The State/City? The one seeking the job? If one has a job that does not pay enough, is the State/City obligated to make up the difference between what the job pays and what was determined to be 'just and favorable remuneration'?

If one has the right to join a trade union, does one have a right NOT to join? There are some jobs that require one to join a union.


Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Will the State/City determine what is a reasonable limitation of working hours and which holidays must be observed or is it left to the individual? Who determines what is 'reasonable"?


Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.


Who determines whether or not the standard of living is adequate? Whose responsibility is it to provide food, clothing, housing, and medical care? Who determines the security to be provided in the event of sickness, disability and the other conditions listed? Why is widowhood singled out? Aren't women perfectly capable of caring for themselves or do we believe that the State/City needs to take care of women because they are incapable of doing so? The same applies to motherhood and childhood.


Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.


What does this mean? Who determines what the best social and international order is?


Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.


What duties are being referred to here? The use of the word 'duties' to me, means that one is not free to choose whether or not one wants to perform those duties.

Who determines what the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare are? Whose morality should we follow? That of the Catholic Church? That of Islam? That of the Atheists?

If the rights and freedoms cannot be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, then does that not override the principals and rights set forth in the Constitution of the United States?


There was a reason that those who created this country placed limits on government. The main reason was so that people could be free to make their own choices without interference. To make their own lives and to be free to succeed or fail. They were smart enough to know that it is impossible to guarantee equality of outcome, which is what I believe this document tries to do; but they wanted to instead guarantee equality of opportunity.

They realized that everyone is different, with different strengths and weaknesses, different abilities and thoughts. It is impractical if not impossible to make everyone exactly the same, and therefore people will achieve different results in life.

In my opinion, adopting this resolution will subject the city to the rules of the United Nations while simultaneously subsuming the Constitution which already guarantees many of the rights outlined by the UDHR. If we are unhappy with the Constitution, the framers created a mechanism called 'Amendments' that can be used to make changes to it. If we can decide to arbitrarily ignore those portions of the Constitution that we do not like, or to subsume it to the laws, rules or customs of others; then we also no longer have the protections that we are guaranteed by it and our rights that are protected by it cease to exist.



Full Definition of SOCIALISM

a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies

1
: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2
a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3
: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done


If the HRC and the Council insist on adopting this resolution, then it is my belief that they should fully adopt it and outline how the new programs will be created to ensure:

1) That everyone who lives in Mountain View and wants a job will be provided with a job by the City, as well as the wages that the city intends to pay them.
2) Ensures that everyone who wants a home in Mountain View is provided with one by the city.
3) That all the responsibilities that the residents have to the city are clearly outlined and made available to the public
4) That the city create programs for mothers and children, and paid for from the general fund, to provide for their special care and assistance.
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I was very pleased to see that some on the Council shared my concerns and I am looking forward to further discussion on the matter.


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View