Tag Archives: Equality

What do you mean by “all men”

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The Declaration of independence asserts people’s rights to choose their own government. Under the unfair treatment from the government of Great Britain, the colonies are unified and become independent from Great Britain. People clearly noticed a problem of equality and made this decision of asserting independence. In the Declaration, it says that “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.” When I first learned about it, I was taught that it simply translates to “people are born equal”. One day, I saw this picture in one of my cogs classes where the professor used a picture of Abraham Lincoln as a demo. It reminded me of the civil war which happened after the publish of the declaration of independence. Clearly “all men” in the declaration of independence doesn’t include those who worked as slaves. It then also made me think that what about women, and learning about the rights of women during that time also refreshes the definition of “all men” for me. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson actually drafted the declaration with the issue of slavery but it was removed later. Is it maybe that the people wrote Declaration of independence never take in consideration of people from other races? If it is the case, why were women excluded as well?  

picture i found in one of my cogs classes, please ignore the irrelevant information

Intellectual Diversity in America

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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?