All Are Created Equal
Declaration of
Independence/Revolutionary War – An Idea
In 1776, a group of 57
rebels made the following declaration:
“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.”
That was the first time
that this bold idea was written down. All are created equal. That group,
along with the people they represented, then began fighting a war to defend
that idea.
The Constitution – A
Compromise
Thirteen years later, after many struggles and numerous battles,
six of these original 57 men, along with 33 other delegates, met to solidify
their union. In doing so, they recognized that this notion that all are created
equal was not easily accomplished. Therefore, the Constitution that they formed
was a compromise.
·
The rights of the people were not codified.
·
Numerous groups of people were denied the right to vote.
·
Several groups were not included, or were only fractionally
included, for representation.
·
In several instances, governing bodies were elected by and
represented the states, not the people.
Recognizing that their
work was unfinished, these founders created an amendment process to allow their
constitution to change and to grow as our nation continued to grow and to
progress.
The Constitution was
established to create “a more perfect union,” but not a perfect one. Designed
to “secure the blessings of liberty,” not only for the founders, but for their
posterity, who they hoped would advance this idea.
Civil War/Gettysburg
Address – Rededication and Resolution
In the years following the
establishment of the constitution, some
progress was made, most importantly the ratification of the Bill of Rights, but
the most egregious inequities remained.
In 1861, one of these
issues tore the country in half. Five years of war, and over 700,000 dead, led
the President to question: Can a “nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to
the proposition that all men are created equal…long endure?”
He then went on to state
that it is for the living “to be dedicated… to the unfinished work which they
who fought… have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining… that we… highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth
of freedom—and that the government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Following the Civil War,
the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were added to the Constitution and ratified by the
states, legally ending the practice of slavery and declaring that citizens
could not be denied the right to vote on account of their race.
Fifty-five years later the
19th Amendment recognized the right to vote for all citizens
regardless of sex, and forty years after that the 23rd Amendment allowed
residents of Washington DC to be represented in presidential elections.
Yet the work remained
unfinished.
Martin Luther King
Jr./Civil Rights Movement – A Dream
On August 28, 1963 Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. stepped to the podium in front of the Lincoln Memorial
and addressed the challenge that remained.
He
stated that:
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of
the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a
promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed
the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory
note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this
sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check
which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We
refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of
opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that
will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
Dr.
King went on,
I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American
dream.
I
have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal.’
I
have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at
the table of brotherhood...
I
have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.
I
have a dream today!
I
have a dream that one day… little black boys and black girls will be able
to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I
have a dream today!
I have a dream
that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall
be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will
be made straight; ‘and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
shall see it together.’
Once again, progress was
made. The 24th Amendment ended poll taxes, the Civil Rights Act expanded
freedom, and Brown v. The Board halted the practice segregation, but we are
still not all equal.
Today
Still an idea. Still an
unfinished work. Still an unkept promise. Still a dream.
We still have work to do!
In recognizing that there
is more to do, we do not detract from those who have gone before. Those who
have so courageously toiled and labored, bled and died in advancing the cause
thus far.
We honor the Founding
Fathers of our nation who first expressed the idea that all are created equal.
We honor those who suffered through the horrors of slavery and those who fought
and died, both black and white, to bring an end to that horrible institution.
We honor the women who toiled to secure the right to vote and those who have
exercised that right and continue to do so. We honor those who marched with Dr.
King and sat with Rosa Parks; and revere those who again fought and died to
advance Civil Rights. And we honor all those who have served in our military,
in Congress, in state houses, legislatures, cities, counties, and school
boards, and anywhere throughout our nation to extend and expand the rights of
all people. And we honor those who continue to fight and work, and yes, to
bleed and die today.
Again, as in Dr. King’s
day, some ask, “When will you be satisfied?”
We will not be satisfied
so long as anyone is “the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police
brutality.”
We will not be satisfied
so long as “Basic mobility [for anyone] is from a smaller ghetto to a larger
one,” or from a $#!+ hole country to a cage in an ICE detention center.
We will not be satisfied
while there remain people among us who cannot vote. The 16-year-old who pays
taxes on his income and can be tried for crimes as an adult but has no voice.
The people of Washington DC, of Puerto Rico, Guam and other US Territories who
can be drafted to fight our wars but have no representation in Congress. The
ex-cons who have made a mistake, but have served their time and paid their debt
to society, but still cannot vote and cannot find a job and so they are left
with little choice but to return to a life of crime.
We will not be satisfied
so long as there are still people in this country who are counted as a fraction
of others. While a voter in Wyoming has 68 times the representation in the
Senate as a voter in California, or a citizen of Vermont’s vote for president
is worth 3.5 times that of a citizen of Florida. We cannot be satisfied.
We will not be satisfied
so long as crooked lines are drawn and arbitrary laws are passed to keep power
in the hands of a few at the expense of the many.
We will not be satisfied
so long as any woman gets paid 20% less than a man for doing the same work.
We will not be satisfied
while there are those among us, in the midst of our plenty, who do not have
food to eat, or a safe place to live, or adequate healthcare.
We will not be satisfied
until there is no discussion of Women’s rights, or LGBTQ rights, or any
minority rights, but only the full recognition of Human Rights.
We will not be satisfied
until there is not only religious freedom, but also tolerance for all religions
to “worship how, where, or what they may.”
We will not be satisfied
while the poor are represented by public defenders who, while often dedicated,
lack the resources of high-priced defense attorneys, so “the righteous [are
condemned while] the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their
money.”
We will not be satisfied so long as the opportunities to gain a
sufficient education are not open to all.
So long as there are those
who are given a head start because of their race, or their money, or their
gender, or family situation, or their access to the internet or to the basic
necessities of life.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until
"justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty
stream."
Until that time, we must
continue to strive. We must continue to march. We must continue to fight. We
must continue to vote. We must do all that lies in our power to reach out to
each other in fellowship and assist those who are still treated as less than
equal.
We must not give up, even
though we fail. For this ideal, this dream, this work, will remain unfinished
by our generation as it has been since our nation’s founding. Nevertheless, we
remain dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal.
