The markers here represent diversity–specifically intellectual diversity, but also racial, religious, and ethnic diversity. One of the most powerful points reverberating throughout the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is that of the inherent dignity and equality of each every person regardless of their individual, particular characteristics (one might say our “being made in the image of God”). While it took some time for the US to progress to dispense with, as regards legality, race, sex, etc. for consideration, I nonetheless think the universality is contained within the two founding documents–and many of the Founding Fathers themselves expressed as much in their private writings, contrary to what perhaps they had to show in public. In specific, the idea that this equality is a “self-evident” truth, that we all have “unalienable Rights,” embodied not only in the main articles of the Constitution, but also in the Bill of Rights (the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, and so forth)–these are all extremely powerful and fundamentally unique ideas, ones not exemplified in other countries’ constitutions (i.e. no other country has an unequivocal right to free speech). We often take it for granted that we have major liberty with respect to our being the architects of our own lives, and so long as we abide by relatively minimal rules of non-interference and such, we are treated as individuals with rights, rights not to be taken away. To what extent do you think these ideas and actual textual mechanisms have contributed to the intellectual diversity within America? To its being, by far, the world leader in medical innovation, entrepreneurship, technological advancement, and so forth? Also, what about racial, ethnic, and religious diversity? The US, while having a core of central values, is also the biggest amalgamation of different cultures and peoples–how have these eternal values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution contributed to the unparalleled diversity we witness in the US?
