Stand Up for Human Rights

May 7, 2007 in Uncategorized

By: Stephanie Rockliss

Cumberland County College had its 3rd annual Human Rights Awareness Day on Wednesday, April 25th. This day, hosted by the Amnesty Club at CCC, took place from 11:00a.m.-2:00p.m. in the Luciano Center.
The Amnesty Club at CCC is a part of Amnesty International, which is an organization that is dedicated to spreading the awareness of human rights. At the event held on Wednesday afternoon, the Amnesty Club expressed that not everyone is as privileged as we are in the United States. Many people all over the world do not have the rights that we do.

According to the Amnesty website, “AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.” Amnesty members are involved in campaigning and giving protests that will let their voices be heard for those who have been silenced. A common campaign technique is to constantly write letters that politely state your point of view, and this is something the Amnesty Club at CCC does too.
AI states, “It does not support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to protect. It is concerned solely with the impartial protection of human rights.”
Professor Mather, one of the professors who is involved in Amnesty Club, wants to give total recognition to all the students who took part in this event. She feels that being a part of the Amnesty Club is one of the most rewarding things to be doing at this college.
Professor Quigley, the advisor of Amnesty Club, said, “We encourage the students to come to the meetings and get involved… we want input.” Quigley said that the Amnesty Club raised $102 for a Solar Cooking Project. This project will help stop Darfurians from going out of their camps to get firewood, which often results in rape. Professor Quigley said, “If enough people became aware of and were involved in stopping the genocide in Darfur, then the genocides could stop.”
There are approximately over 2.2 million members of AI from over 150 countries and territories around the world. According to the website, these members have many different backgrounds and a variety of political and religious beliefs. However, they have been united with one purpose in mind: establishing human rights to everyone who has not experienced these rights for themselves.

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  • One Book One College

    By Jen Resnick Since 2004 there has been a One Book One College program here at CCC. The Students and staff are requested to read a book, which is chosen for that academic year. The book brings students, staff and even community members closer together by discussion. The CCC staff members are responsible for choosing the book. Professor Catherine Kewish chose this year’s one-book one-college novel. She chose Snow Falling On Cedars, by David Guterson. “The number one reason that this book was picked, [was] because it lent itself to so many different classes and different academic areas. It could easily be discussed, paper assignments, research papers and things like that and it also lent itself to multi-culturism diversity, which really are key words in the classes today,” stated professor Kewish. Snow Falling On Cedars had great reviews and is known as a “must read” novel. This gripping and impeccably written masterpiece is based on Japanese tradition. There will be a day of Japanese tradition held here at CCC in the Conference Center Banquet Room on Wednesday, March 21, 2007. Professor Kewish is very excited about this upcoming event. “This book gave us the opportunity to work with Japanese culture and we will have a whole afternoon of Japanese culture, tradition, Japanese dancers, maybe the Japanese drummers if they could get here, [and] things like Japanese calligraphy, origami, flower arranging, a Japanese tea ceremony. It’s going to be gorgeous!” said Kewish. This event is opened to the community. CCC has offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the author of this riveting novel. David Guterson, will be here on campus on Wednesday, April 4, 2007. Guterson will be at The Fine and Performing Arts Center in the theatre at 7pm. In the past the other “must read” books included, The Color Of Water and My Sister’s Keeper. You can find any of these books here at CCC’s library, CCC’s bookstore, and online.