Annual Human Rights Day Candlelight Vigil in Sacramento Features Raging Grannies

Sacramento Peace Action held its annual Human Rights Day candlelight vigil on the corner of 16th and J streets in Sacramento on Wednesday, December 10, from 4:30 to 6:00.

The highlight of the vigil was the appearance by the Raging Grannies of Sacramento, who performed an array of songs about peace, human rights and social justice. The group, originally formed by long-time anti-war and social justice activist Joan Kelly, who passed away earlier this year, has reformed under the leadership of Faye Kennedy of the Sacramento Poor People's Campaign.

This event, originally started by the Sacramento Religious Community for Peace in 1985, has been held at the same location for the past 40 years. I have participated in the vigil every year from 1986 forward. It was great to see the two dozen advocates, including many veteran advocates for human rights and friends of mine, at the vigil.

The vigil celebrated the 77th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Participants in the event met up at The Old Spaghetti Factory after the vigil for dinner and read the UN Declaration out loud.

This year is a particularly terrible time for human rights here and around the world as the U.S.-sponsored genocide in Gaza continues, Trump murders innocent fishermen on the waters around Venezuela, and ICE terrorizes immigrant communities around the U.S.

“As we prepare to celebrate Christmas this year, the Holy Land is still bathed in blood," said Mario Galvan, Board Member of Sacramento Area Peace Action. "A modern ‘Slaughter of the Innocents’ is revealing, yet again, that the human race still hasn't learned to live together in harmony, accepting our diversities of language, race and religion. But the dream of a peaceful world is still alive; a candle of hope still burns in countless hearts."

“Seventy-seven years ago, at the end of the two most brutal wars in human history, that took at least 120 million lives, the survivors tried to ensure that it would never happen again. They created an institution for the prevention of war, the United Nations, which produced a document that provides a path to peace: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Tragically, many governments have since put both the United Nations and its Universal Declaration aside. They put their faith in military alliances, and their perpetual wars have the world bleeding in many places,” he explained.

“We the people, if we really are a democracy, must turn our governments away from the path of war. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be our guiding light. We must reclaim it, proclaim it, and call for its enforcement at all levels of society. With our governments drunk with power, the real changes we need have to come from ourselves. We need to reclaim our humanity and our sanity, and come together in the quest for peace. It has to start with us,” Galvan concluded.