Two hundred thirty years ago, a group of men far apart from the grip of the Old World wrote a declaration that has been the seminal vein of hope in the hearts of people.
It was a declaration based on this simple principle, "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."
Here in one sentence is a summation that God would desire each of us to have the same start in life.
Yet declarations and deeds do not always go hand in hand. The framers of this document wrote as men of their time. They wrote as Englishmen about to embark on a profound social experiment in the New World.
But who would be invited to fully participate in their world? At that time, slavery was extant throughout the colonies; to "push the envelope" meant to lose the southern colonies if not more. The immediate need to forge a union trumped the need to explore the fullness of what equality meant.
Their answer of momentary convenience would soon be framed in the Constitution that granted slaves a "three-fifths status" in calculating electoral balance in the emerging states. Simply put, that means not fully human and thus not equal. The answer was pushed off onto future generations. A war between the states would have to be waged to expand the concept of equality.
Defaulting on a promissory note
Over 40 years ago, one social commentator observed about America's progress toward equality:
"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 the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check..."
