The view from over here is a quiet one, a small voice speaking quietly from a long way off, and I am not sure anyone would listen to it, but I can't be the only one worried about the word democracy and what it really means. Yesterday, a St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Police Officer Darren
Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager. The community response to Mike Brown's death, and the
response that is likely still to come, surely marks a pivotal moment in the U.S. human rights
movement and indeed in U.S. history. It's a moment of passion and of
frustration, that is very clear but its more than that. It's an international issue and a moment in our time when the United States, who use the word democracy is a stick to beat their drum throughout the world, must stand up to ensure that each
individual's human rights - including the right to freedom of speech and peaceful protest - are respected,
protected and fulfilled. Anything else amounts to hypocrisy. Its not a clear cut situation, nothing ever is, but this is a human rights scandal, no question - maybe I should speak a little louder, just like before:
