To the solid rock of human dignity
Like many countries, America is at a cross-road. And our choice turns on our commitment to dignity.
Dignity stands for the simple and intuitive idea that every human being has inherent and equal worth. For Martin Luther King, dignity embodied an aspiration: “The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the means to seek self-improvement,” he said in a speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1967.
Today, it’s not just a dream. It’s the law. Courts around the world are taking this idea and turning it into an actionable right – a right to secure the very values that King identified. Courts have said that every person has an equal right to fully and freely develop their personality; to be treated with dignity by others, no matter what; and to live with a certain level of comfort, worthy of a human being (or, as the Germans say, “Menschenwürde.”).
By focusing on dignity, these courts are redefining the relationship between people and government. They are prohibiting governments from doing things that limit or diminish human dignity – whether it’s suppressing freedom of speech or freedom of association or mistreating people who are in prison, or banning certain forms of health care. At the same time, courts are imposing certain affirmative obligations on governments: they are requiring governments to ensure that every person has access to adequate food and clean water, to provide a good education to all children, to punish physical violence, and to take into account the environmental and climate impacts of government policies, among other things. The threats to dignity are diverse and, in all kinds of ways, courts are trying to make sure that government action and inaction protect and promote people’s ability to live with dignity and flourish.
But protection of dignity isn’t just the responsibility of the courts. It’s the responsibility of each of us. By definition, no one can secure our dignity but ourselves: if someone else is defining our dignity for us, then the decisions concerning our own lives aren’t really in our own hands. All government policies have some effect, so the question for citizens of any nation that calls itself a democracy is whether we, the people choose policies that enhance the dignity of all, or that diminish or sacrifice the dignity of some.
On January 20, 2025, America stands at a cross-road. Some Americans are celebrating the national holiday created to honor Martin Luther King, who devoted his life to securing the recognition of dignity of millions of African Americans. Some Americans will be watching the inauguration of the next President of the United States.
Why dignity? Why now? Because as Martin Luther King said from the Birmingham Jail, “Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”