All Men are Created Equal?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
It is common knowledge that this very well known and often quoted (or misquoted) opening statement of the Declaration of Independence was insightfully and artfully written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. If this is true, then why is it that over 230 years later we, as intellectual beings, still struggle so much with it’s application? Some of us cling to it as the cornerstone statement for all that is democracy. Some of us scream it like a battle call in our fight for civil rights. The atheists tend to discount the entire statement as they dismiss the existence of a Creator at all much less any rights that may be endowed by a Creator. It has become the basis for the tsunami of discrimination cases in America. Just the fact that somebody feels the need to declare it or yell it in protest means that there must be at least some people that don’t hold this statement as gospel fact. Why is this? Can we really discuss it today without being labeled a racist, chauvinist, or bigot? These statements illustrate the idea of “natural rights”, a philosophical concept of the period of Enlightenment; many of the ideas in the Declaration were borrowed from the English liberal political philosopher John Locke. In these days of political correctness, I find myself often asking the question again, are we really created equal? I submit that the answer to this question is completely based upon our definition of the seemingly simple word “equal”. I truly believe that due to fear of being politically correct we have avoided discussion of this critical phrase, however the time has come that we must take a long and honest look at this statement and develop a better understanding of what it really means.
Is it racist to say that most black people are darker than white people? Is it chauvinistic to say that most women have larger breasts and wider hips than men? Is it profiling to say that most black infants in the US are born to unmarried mothers? I submit that these are simply facts. So why is it that some Harvard faculty members were infuriated last year, after the President of the University, Lawrence Summers, suggested in a speech that "intrinsic aptitude" could explain why fewer women have excelled in science and math? This created such uproar that he was forced to resign. I for one always thought that men tended more toward the math and sciences than women do. I don’t mind going on record saying it. What is the ratio of men to women in the engineering fields? What is the ratio of men to women in the area of math, chemistry, geology, biology, etc, etc, etc? The numbers bear it out. So why is it such a chauvinistic statement to say that there may exist an “intrinsic aptitude” that is responsible for this discrepancy? I truly believe that we have created a society that screams foul for the slightest reasons any time that people don’t get their way and we have utilized legions of hungry lawyers to destroy our judicial system to the point that now it is almost impossible to say anything without the risk of a lawsuit. People, we are not created equal!!!! We are all intrinsically different. Look at the number of black hockey players compared to the number of black basketball players and tell me that there is not an intrinsic tendency manifested there. It is not a judgment against anybody to state the facts. It is just fact.
Ok now that I have said that, I do want to state that I truly believe that Thomas Jefferson was very clear in his statement, but the intent has been misconstrued for over 2 centuries. John Adams himself clarified the confusion in his statement,

“But what are we to understand here by equality? Are the citizens to be all of the same age, sex, size, strength, stature, activity, courage, hardiness, industry, patience, ingenuity, wealth, knowledge, fame, wit, temperance, constancy, and wisdom? Was there, or will there ever be, a nation, whose individuals were all equal, in natural and acquired qualities, in virtues, talents, and riches? The answer of all mankind must be in the negative. It must then be acknowledged, that in every state...there are inequalities which God and nature have planted there, and which no human legislator ever can eradicate.”
I truly believe that what Jefferson meant by his statement was that all people have equal human rights to be treated fairly. Remember that this was written at a time when the colonists were not feeling like England was treating them equally. This statement was not a statement dealing with civil rights issues as much as representation issues.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that we are not equal, but we should treat each other as if we were. Stay tuned for my next discussion about how America is being lost because we forget that while the rest of the world is still fighting for life and liberty, we spend most of our time and money on the pursuit of happiness. We have been blessed into complete amnesia.

Dr. Kraft lives in College Station ,Texas with his wife and 8 children, 4 of whom were adopted from Haiti. He and his wife, Cynthia, homeschool their children and are active in their Church with emphasis on orphan and medical ministries in Haiti. http://www.promother.com