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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: talk & travel
Message-ID: <elnaD4pBxn.FKp@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <elnaD3oBsD.IE7@netcom.com> <3i29ps$8u3@macondo.dmu.ac.uk> <elnaD4AAqz.Dtp@netcom.com> <5gaWL71laJB@alnilam.toppoint.de>
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 08:36:59 GMT
Lines: 43
Sender: elna@netcom4.netcom.com

mintaka@alnilam.toppoint.de (Bernd P.F. Kassler) writes in a recent posting (reference <5gaWL71laJB@alnilam.toppoint.de>):
>Hello Esperanto League N America
>(elna@netcom.com)
>on 20 Feb 95 you wrote in soc.culture.german
>in topic : Re: talk & travel
>
>>(...)      and agree that linguistic rights cannot
>>be ignored in Europe nor in any international body.
>>
>After reading Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant and GFW Hegel on the subject of  
>human rights I completely missed "linguistic rights". Perhaps this is an  
>invention of the 20st century. Please confirm.
>
I believe this is so. I know of no mention of "linguistic rights" before
1923 in "Meyer v. Nebraska" in which a school-teacher was convicted of 
violating Nebraska's English-only law, which prohibited the teaching of
foreign languages in elementary schools. This case created a new, broader
interpretation of the U.S. Constitution's  first and forteenth amendments
(freedom of speech and due process/equal protection).
Perhaps in Europe or Asia this issue was addressed earlier; I confess my
ignorance.  
I hope you know of the several references in United Nations documents. In 
the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (which BTW the U.S. has never 
signed, although nearly every other member-state of the UN has) we find in 
Article 2:   "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth
in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status."  Similar language is found in the
United Nations Charter, which was signed on June 26, 1945-- just shy of 
fifty years ago.       

>But our rights stem (derive) from the philosophical theories of the last  
>century .. and linguistic rights are barely to find.
>and: rights without power behind it are *nothing* but daydreams .. even  
>worse: they are ridiculous.
>
I believe that many moral philosophers would disagree with this. I am 
thinking of Gandhi and Hammarskjoeld, among others.  
I believe that moral philosophy has evolved significantly since the time
of Hegel, let alone Hobbes!  

Miko.

