Jessica Craig, a seventh-grade student at Sequim Middle School, won the Baha’i Assembly of Clallam County East essay contest in recognition of United Nations Universal Human Rights Day, Dec. 10.
The theme of the essay is “What do human rights mean to me?”
She receives a United States savings bond. Craig will read her essay at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
She is the daughter of Susan and Peter Craig.
Her essay follows:
“The Universal declaration of human rights is the beginning of a system to protect basic human dignity and freedom. What universal human rights mean to me is that every human, whatever the color of their skin, eyes, hair, clothes and religion or beliefs, should be treated the same.
I feel humans are just like cookies. Every cookie is made up of basically the same thing. In cookies it is flour, sugar, and baking soda. For humans it might be our brain, heart or lungs which are all the same, and completely necessary to be alive. In cookies you have the basic ingredients but the things that make each cookie different may be you add nuts, or dried fruit and chocolate chips! This is just like humans but it would be different skin color, eyes, hair, body weight and height! For cookies they can be burnt or more browned than others. And for humans some people may be more self centered or focused on what only helps them. All human beings are the same, but all of us have different beliefs and ideas.
These beliefs need to be considered, but it does not mean that one person is better than the other. Just because a person may think something, it does not mean it’s right.
But what is “right”?
The word “right” is part of an opinion that one person may think! For example, if I think helping feed the poor is the “right” thing to do, someone else may think that we shouldn’t because they made bad choices in their lives (like drugs and stealing) and that they need to turn things around in life by themselves.
Who is “right”? We need to put these beliefs behind us and work as one to help ALL the people in the world to get human rights even if they did something bad. Because the human race is NOT perfect.
On the website “Youth for Human RIghts,” they list 30 basic human rights. I think the most important human rights to me are: Freedom of Thought, Food and Shelter for All, The Right to Education, and No One Can Take Away Your Human Rights.
What Universal human rights means to me is that every person is entitled to certain rights simply because they are a human being. Since we are all human beings, we all have the same rights and should not try to put ourselves above others.”
