Columnist Sandy Thompson: Whatever happened to basic human rights?

Sandy Thompson

Friday, July 5, 2002 | 4:21 a.m.

JULY FOURTH 2002 turned out to be more than an observance of a holiday to commemorate our country's independence.

For me, the day began with disgust and revulsion that, fortunately, subsided into quiet reflection. I was asking the same silent questions that have nagged me from time to time since Sept. 11. Why? How? Where is the world going?

The source of my angst was a front-page news story about a tribal council in Pakistan that determined an 11-year-old boy was wrong for walking unchaperoned with a girl from a different tribe. His punishment for that great sin? Members of the tribal council gang-raped his 18-year-old sister to bring shame and humiliation to his family. (According to the story, it was the second such rape in a week. The other girl killed herself.)

Please tell me why walking or talking to someone is a grave error but brutally attacking a girl is acceptable? If that is not enough to prove that these people and fanatics like them have no regard for human life, the news report said that as the girl was being repeatedly raped in a mud hut, "hundreds of people stood outside laughing and cheering."

My husband was in the Air Force and spent time in Pakistan. One morning he and a buddy were playing golf at a small course there. As they neared one of the greens, they saw a body of a young girl nearby. Her throat had been cut. They later were told that the girl had talked to a man who was not a relative. Her punishment was death.

This is a civilized world?

Any religion or culture that demands or condones such behavior is not civilized. Their followers want the world to return to the sixth century way of life.

So it's disturbing to me that an increasing number of people here (I hate political labels, but most of them are misguided ultra-liberals) and around the world are telling the United States that we must learn to "understand" other cultures and religions. We must take time to "understand" why they hate us and our way of life. Why don't those people (i.e., the Islamic world) try to "understand" what makes us tick? Because they don't have the freedom to, that's why. In countries and areas where fanatics rule, people are not allowed to think. You live their way or you die.

I enjoy learning about different cultures and customs. But I don't understand why there is so little regard for human life in some areas of the world. No history or political course will ever get me to understand or accept it. Neither will terrorist attacks that kill innocent people.

America is far from perfect. A percentage of our people coddle and spoil their children; another percentage throw them in garbage bins or beat them. We have our own historical atrocities to deal with. We have a way to go in making life better for our neediest citizens and children. But America is still a damn sight better than fanatical areas where women and children (and some men) don't even have the basic human right to live.

Sometimes I think that if women ruled the Islamic world and men had to cover their bodies from head to toe and be gang-raped for batting an eyelash at someone, there would be one helluva revolution and men would be back in control.

How ironic that "God" consumes every part of life in some areas of the world, and we're trying to erase "God" from our lives. Contrary to what fundamentalists and fanatics might think, this is not a matter of religion. It's about basic human rights.

It's also about common sense: Treat people how you want to be treated. Maybe that's just what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. It's the only way a civilized world can exist.

. But America is still a damn sight better than fanatical areas where women and children (and some men) don't even have the basic human right to live.