When does the United States not celebrate UN Day (24 October) and Human Rights Day (10 December)? The reasons are political.

The US is the world’s foremost superpower. It is the citadel of world capitalism, militarism, and imperialism. It possesses a vast global empire and the world’s most lethal military machine. Its spy satellites circle the earth; its nuclear submarines patrol the world’s oceans; and its war ships and military bases are all over the world.

It possesses more nuclear weapons than any other UN member state. Indeed, only the US has ever used nuclear weapons. This occurred on 6 and 9 August 1945 when the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasake. This was unconscionable genocide. The US regularly interferes in the internal affairs of other UN member states and is willing to use nuclear weapons again if it is losing a conventional war. In a word, the US is one of the world’s foremost rogue states.

The US does not abide by the UN Charter; it is not committed to eliminating the scourge of war and uses the UN only when it is compatible with its foreign policy objectives. That is why the US does not celebrate UN Day; its commitment to the UN is too tenuous to celebrate the creation of the UN and to recommit itself to the fulfillment of its goals. The American people need to alter this totally unacceptable situation.

What about Human Rights Day (10 December)? The US regularly criticizes other UN member states for their human rights vioaltions, but its own record is far from being unblemished. The American people live under a capitalist democracy and there is almost no free expression of ideas and free debate. Business dominates every aspect of American civilization and the main right business recognizes is not the right to live in civilized dignity but the freedom to compete to be successful.

In the US, the left is repressed and rarely allowed to express its commitment to socialism. There are also many other human rights violations. In a word, the US does not abide by the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that is why the US does not celebrate Human Rights Day.

All this must change if the US is to be transformed into a just and humane civilization. Capitalism in its imperialist stage of development is antiquated and antithetical to the future of humanity; it needs to be replaced by some form of socialism. Then America will celebrate both holidays and join the international community as a good neighbor and an exemplary UN member state.

> David Slive, Buffalo

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