Dear Theresa, We're Human, Too

Before I begin, no, I’m not from the UK. I’m from the U.S. where human rights and freedom plays an important role in our country. Despite the fact that my family was from the Middle East, Turkey to be exact, they’ve all come to the United States to gain the freedom they couldn’t have back in their country. Since I’m first generation here, I couldn’t be any more thankful to live in such a great country and gain human rights to be myself.

Aside from all that, everyone across the planet should have their rights. It’s a necessity, basically. With these rights, it allows you to be yourself without anyone, or the government, stopping you from doing so.

Now, Theresa May, you’re the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Leader of the Conservative Party. You are a pretty big deal — being the second female to hold two large positions. That’s a lot of work, and sometimes, doing too much work can go straight to your head. In this case, you’re definitely crazy. Why?

You said, “… doing more to restrict the freedom and the movements of terrorist suspects when we have enough evidence to know they present a threat, but not enough evidence to prosecute them in full in court… And if human rights laws stop us from doing it, we will change those laws so we can do it."

So, you’re essentially stating that in order to get rid of terror suspects, you would have to demolish human rights across the UK? Not only is this one of the most unprofessional ideas you could have possibly thought of, but that isn't the only way to capture terrorists. There are other, better ways to handle the situation rather than just taking away people's rights to live in the country.

I understand, you want to keep your country safe and away from anymore terrorist attacks and there aren't enough evidence to fully capture these terror suspects. Yes, I can view your perspective from one side. However, just taking away every citizen's rights is where it becomes wrong. How can anyone live without having any human rights? Securing the rights to be yourself through race, color, sexuality, etc. Having the privilege to speak out your thoughts and opinions is what makes anyone human. Without human rights, the country would just be black and white. Even though I'm not from the UK, I'm still speaking as a U.S. citizen who praises human rights and freedom.

Imagine you're from Iran who came to the UK to gain an education and work to make a living for you and your family. The police would constantly be on top of you doing background checks every year or every few months to see whether or not you're a terrorist. No matter how innocent you are, the police will always come back to do a background check, because you came from Iran.

Many people in the UK won't be able to live comfortably if you get rid of their rights. How can anyone be themselves in the country they live in without having certain privileges that makes them human? It would be like living in prison -- constantly being watched with limited benefits. Can you live like that? I highly doubt it -- no one can.

Returning to capturing terror suspects, there are definitely other ways to find evidence against terrorists without messing with other citizens' rights. Once again, I understand that you don't want terrorist attacks to happen again -- no one does. But dragging down other people into the process could only make things ugly.

Taking away human rights is equivalent to taking away a person's identity.