In these times the obliviousness of a large portion of the American public to the rest of the world they live in, as well as to what's going on in their own backyard, needs to change.

"In the idea that those who suffer 'no grievance or injury' have the obligation to speak up for those who have suffered them lies the birth of the vision that human rights are universal." From a piece on British abolitionists in 1787, "Rights and Liberties: The Idea That Brought Slavery to Its Knees," at AlterNet.