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Director's Message Dec. 15, 2006
To: All DHS employees From: Bruce Goldberg, Director Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home -- so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world… Without concerted human action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.
As DHS employees, we often describe ourselves as being on the front lines. That is certainly true of our many colleagues who deliver direct services but, in so many ways, it's true of each of us. We operate a complex agency that needs to make tough decisions quickly, accurately and justly to serve Oregonians. We are on the front lines of a struggle to improve the human condition.
This time of year there are numerous efforts in communities throughout Oregon to improve the human condition and help those in need. Coincidentally, this past Sunday, the world observed Human Rights Day and the focus was on poverty.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, made a direct connection between human rights and being on the front lines of fighting poverty. Poverty prevails as the gravest human rights challenge in the world, she wrote in part. …By tackling poverty as a matter of obligation, the world will have a better chance of abolishing this scourge in our lifetime.
Many of us probably don't think of ourselves as human rights workers, but perhaps we should. Here at DHS, we fight poverty every time we get someone into addiction treatment, help a household become self-sufficient, find a means of providing someone access to health care, help a senior or person with disability live as independently as possible, say something to reduce the stigma of mental illness, and improve overall public health.
In everything we do, we are on the front lines of fighting poverty in our state. And as vigorous champions of self-sufficiency and human rights here at home, we also are members of a global partnership that is trying to eradicate poverty.
Another group of Oregonians who are on a very different front line are our approximately 900 National Guard men and women serving in Afghanistan, people who sometimes experience the poverty of loneliness. Following his recent visit, Governor Kulongoski said troops told him the one thing they wanted most was to hear from people back home and to hear about Oregon.
I would like to encourage you to take a few minutes, and that's all it takes, to write to our National Guard personnel. Send a postcard of scenic Oregon or a calendar, for example. Tell them about the wind storm that is approaching as I write, our wet November, or what's happening in your community.
Here is a PDF list of people who will take whatever you send and distribute it to Oregon men and women who could use the encouragement of mail from home.
Your out-of-pocket cost will be a 39-cent stamp or whatever would be needed to send your letter or package within the U.S. The payoff for Oregon's National Guard men and women in uniform in Afghanistan, 12 time zones away, is incalculable.
I will do it. Please join me. |
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