The Stranger at the Door

Rights and Freedoms

When we were children, we learned that the basic human needs are these: food, clothing, and shelter. We memorized this as a chant in the same way we memorized stop-drop-roll as the way to put out a fire on our clothing. In 1948, the United Nations declared these to be rights, and not only these three basic needs but thirty-one others as well. Some of those include the right to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of race, religion, or nationality; at any port of entry, and on all occasions, to be treated as equals in a spirit of brotherhood. Treatment is not to be cruel, inhumane or degrading. And, we are guaranteed right of free passage when we are fleeing the persecution or oppression occurring in our place of origin. This Declaration of Human Rights was adopted almost 70 years ago. How do you think we're doing?

We seem to have no trouble caring for those in need if they belong to us. I remember how Birmingham spread its arms to Katrina survivors. We opened our homes and churches, we set up shelters, the Red Cross jumped in and began helping those who needed treatment and more permanent shelter. We're not as accommodating if those in need are different from us in some way—especially racially, or religiously. We bang up against our own fears and prejudices. “What if they're thieves, or worse, terrorists?” we ask ourselves.

This is a blemish on the heart of humanity. We must all wrestle with our fears and consciences about whether we want to live in a world that welcomes the stranger or in a world that does not. We feel secure in our belief that this will never happen to us—that we will never become the stranger on the doorstep, dependent upon someone's graciousness. That is not guaranteed, ever. In the past week alone, some 600 homes have been burned to the ground in California and the fire is still raging. Twenty thousand people are displaced with only the clothes on their backs.

Today, let's contemplate our response to the desperate needs of people in crisis. Let's review the Declaration of Human Rights, and think about how we would want to be treated if we were the stranger at the door.

                                                         In the Spirit,

                                                               Jane