#righs

Crisis in Russia: two brutal murders for being gay within weeks. One man was stabbed to death by neighbours, and a younger man was beaten to death with rocks after coming out. The rise in attacks is happening as President Putin wages war on gays and lesbians. His government has banned Pride marches and is trying to bring in a new anti-gay law. And tomorrow, a major Russian gay organisation will go on trial to fight closure. Putin is getting away with the crackdown because there’s little international media attention and no real pressure from other world leaders.

But if we start with a massive petition,we can work to get the crisis on the to do list of every world leaderand onto the front pages of newspapers. Can you sign before the trial starts tomorrow?  http://www.allout.org/russia-attacks

  There is nothing wrong for being gay to deserve this kind of treatment for gay people in Russia. Help by signing this petition!

We were discussing if the individual or the community was more important and I just wanted to put on here what I said.  This is essentially the basis of my entire view of politics.

The individual and the community are coequal.  One is not more important than the other.  You need both in order to succeed.  The key is balance.

Look at it in the way of a revolution.  If you fight for the individual, when they die, there is nothing to fight for.  Therefore, you fight for the community (ie the collective good of the whole).  But, the role of the community is to protect the individual.  If this is forgotten, basic human rights are infringed upon and this is in every sense of the word wrong.  But in return, individual rights of one cannot infringe on the individual rights of another.  Also, the rights of the individual cannot NEVER be infringed by the rights of the community.