Four essentail human freedoms - still linked to national and global security

Dear Editor,

I’m grateful Katrina vanden Heuvel recognized and wrote about the prominence of Eleanor Roosevelt’s words and her husbands “four essential human freedoms” offered seventy five years ago to this day (The 'four freedoms' are under assault.  Washington Post.  Jan. 6, 2016).   It goes beyond Ms. Vanden Heuvel’s conclusion that “we are not just choosing a president” but “what kind of country we want to be.”   By working to ensure Eleanor’s call for a “greater justice” for all humanity we are also ensuring our greatest level of human security and national security here at home.   But don’t take my word for it.  Read the two word summary of the Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance released this past summer.  Former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright and former UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari (commission co-chairs) summarized the report calling for “just security.”   The full report clearly details the growing security threats due to our failure to ensure global justice.  After reading the report it will become clear why Eleanor lead the creation and passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights soon after her husband died and World War II had ended.   If that document had become the world’s official and enforceable bill of rights, we would not be dealing with the growing list of unprecedented and seemingly irresolvable threats that are before us today.

Commission website:  http://www.globalsecurityjusticegovernance.org/