On July 28, 2006, Rocky Anderson announced that he was not going to run for a third term as Mayor of Salt Lake City. He explained his reason as follows:
I have made this decision because I want to spend my remaining days working on grass-roots advocacy and organizing in the areas of human rights and global warming. As our nation – and indeed our world – have proclaimed “Never Again” ever since the Holocaust, we have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear, again and again, toward many millions of people . . . as they have been murdered, raped, tortured, and run off from their homes.
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A clear thread that runs throughout the history of genocides, sexual slavery, climate change, and other human rights tragedies is the fact that our elected officials are generally not leaders. Rather, they respond to what the polls say or what we the people demand. . . . Our elected officials need to know we care – and that if they don’t act to stop human rights abuses and the exacerbation of global warming, they will pay a significant political price. Hence, it rests upon us to lead – to organize – and to make a positive difference by pushing our elected officials to do the right thing.
Two weeks into the Rwandan genocide in 1994, President Clinton’s National Security Advisor told a human rights worker, “Make more noise!” He said the phones weren’t ringing and that, without a manifestation of Americans caring about the genocide, intervention to stop it would not occur. . . . [N]o one in the US made noise, phone calls weren’t made, the US and UN failed to intervene – and 800,000 people were butchered in 100 days. The same was true when two million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; when the genocide, including use of concentration and rape camps, occurred for two and one-half years in Bosnia; when Saddam Hussein actually had chemical weapons and was using them against the Kurds . . . ; and, now, for four years, in the Darfur region of Sudan, where untold tragedy has occurred with abysmal inaction by the US and the UN.
So I plan to “make more noise” – and hope to help others give vent to their humanity and their outrage by “making more noise.” Through grass roots advocacy and organizing, I believe and hope we can make this a better, safer, healthier, more sustainable, and far kinder world.
High Road’s Start-up. The day he left office, January 7, 2008, Anderson filed incorporation papers for what would become High Road for Human Rights Education Project and High Road for Human Rights Advocacy Project. Since that day, High Road has been working non-stop, building the infrastructure necessary for mass communication and mass mobilization that will lead to major changes in human rights policies and practices.
Areas of Focus. High Road identified four human rights areas on which to focus: genocide, human trafficking, climate change, and torture. Recently, a fifth area of focus, state-sanctioned killing under the guise of the death penalty, was added to the High Road agenda. The work of High Road has been intense and far-reaching, laying the groundwork for an aggressive, effective citizens’ lobby of informed, well-prepared people in local communities throughout the nation.
High Road for Human Rights honors and promotes the right of all people to a life of dignity and justice through its innovative educational projects and its grassroots advocacy. Building a network of local community chapters throughout the United States and beyond, High Road for Human Rights organizes and empowers people to identify human rights threats and abuses and to ensure that policies and practices of the United States support and promote human rights around the world.
Help
High Road for Human Rights organize in communities in every state to
help end genocide, torture, human trafficking, sexual slavery and global
climate change by raising awareness about the challenges and, perhaps most
importantly, the
solutions
we demand
be
pursued
by our
elected officials.
While
your financial contribution would be greatly appreciated and vital
to the successes
of High Road for Human Rights, membership does not require payment
of money. To become a member, all you need to do is provide your contact
information
and indicate the grassroots action(s) you would be willing
to consider
in helping to bring about change.
Click here to indicate how you
would like to become a citizen activist.
After you have joined as a member of High Road, you will be contacted so
that your voice can be added to the unified national call for change. You
will also be provided the means to engage in grassroots actions coordinated
with citizen activism around the country. You will be an essential part of
a national citizens lobby, with the means to make your voice heard and to
have an impact in bringing about compassionate change.
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