Today is Human Rights Day.  A simple thing, it seems, and yet an idea that needs a designated day to get people to even consider it.  I was alerted on my facebook page, a friend sent me an invitation to change my profile picture to a picture of an imprisoned Tiebetan. Pictured here are just a few of many: the Panchen Lama: Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen and a peace protester named Gyaltsen Choezom who was imprisoned for 9 years and is still held in Tibet. The campaign is going on until midnight tonight. If you have Facebook then this is where you go:  Change your Profile pic for Tibet's Political Prisoners on Human Rights Day. If you don't have Facebook then I might recommend these sites:

Save Tibet
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy

It's a small thing to change your picture. It may seem so inconsequential in light of the abuses and sufferings that so many are subjected to on a daily basis. But it does serve a purpose. This is one of those small lights that we must shine out in the darkness. It is also a reminder to ourselves to be aware and to remember. Let us remember more than simply one day. Let us remember every day that there are so many places where Human Rights are treated with such cruelty and disdain. Remember all the places, the Darfurs the Burmas, the Tibets, the Turkmenistans, the list goes on and feel free to add to it. Feel free, in fact, to post other sites here. And remember.

I often tell my students that we are faced daily with a simple choice - in the smallest of acts that we may commit - a choice of being on the side of the oppressor or being for the people who need help the most. There are human rights abuses around daily. Tyrants can be very local and sometimes very personal. Sometimes even a small, seemingly insignificant gesture can lift the spirit and offer hope.