Final statement from Steering Council on politically-charged commit messages

[Richard Damon]

On 8/18/20 7:34 PM, rmlibre at riseup.net wrote:
> I would also caution against relying on the idea of human rights when
> defending against accusations of being political, since they too are
> political. Life is political. We continue to this day trying to
> redefine, as a society, what human rights are, & who is considered to
> deserve them. That process is politics.

I will challenge STRONGLY the believe that all right are political in
nature. That attitude is the path of tyranny, for if rights only come by
the will of the government, then the government is in its right to take
them all away.

The American Deceleration of Independence states it well (Yes, I know we
are not all Americans):

*We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.*

Without an ideal like this, that the basic rights come out of something
bigger than ourselves, we have no basis to decide on what is a right. In
fact, if we declare that rights are purely a political decision, we have
no right to complain about past abuses that were within what the then
society decide was right, or at the very least if we want to say they
were wrong, we have to accept just as validly their concept that WE are
just as wrong.

Politics may be the process to hammer out the details, but if politics
does not look to the ruling of the truly higher power, it has no
authority, except might, to enforce it. If we accept might as the right
and power to rule, we need to accept that it was and will be the right
and power, and accept what it brought and will bring.

-- 
Richard Damon