Sojourner Truth

What does it mean to have rights? As Americans, we believe that all people have (God-given)rights, whether or not a person is male or female, young or old, black or white or Hispanic, Christian or Buddhist or atheist.

Most of the rest of the world does not practice this ideal (and America sure doesn't have it down either). Much of Islam strips women of their rights. Tribal wars that have lasted hundreds and thousands of years continue still today, people dying over lost causes. Babies who are born female are "relievingly" aborted in China, etc. when culture tells people that male is the desired gender. Thousands of people starve to death in Africa because governments are corrupt. Many women and children are trafficked throughout the world and in/to America.

Sojourner Truth sang a song once in an address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association in 1881: "We are going home. There, children, in heaven we shall rest from all our labors; first do all we have to do here. There I am determined to go, not to stop short of that beautiful place, and I do not mean to stop till I get there, and meet you there, too."

I think Ms. Truth summed it up nicely, as she herself was a black woman who lived as a slave for 40 years and a free woman for 40 years. First, do all we have to do here.