Equality. It’s another one of those words that everyone claims to understand, yet few can define.
If you look it up in the dictionary, it means “of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another” or “free from extremes”. The Founding Fathers correctly stated in the Declaration of Independence 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.”
All men are, indeed, created equal. The same potential for greatness or infamy exists at the moment of every human birth. Every one of them then, by definition, may begin from the same starting point. And then each have the inalienable right to live, to live in freedom, and in that free life to pursue happiness.
Please note for the record that they did not state everyone is entitled to HAVE happiness. Our Founding Fathers were wise enough to understand that happiness is – more importantly – only a byproduct of pursuing it.
All of this means that our government owes us very, very little. It exists to serve to preserve for us, the country as a whole, our freedoms and our opportunity to use those freedoms to pursue happiness. It owes us a military presence, yes. That preserves us from enemies without. It owes us the abolition of slavery, voting rights for women, desegregation, even freedom of choice, yes. Those preserve us from enemies within and preserve our freedom to then pursue happiness.
But having equal opportunity is never a guarantee of equal results. Hitler dreamed of a pure, homogenous race yet he failed – miserably (thank you) – because people are inherently individuals and therefore different. Those differences are why all the human horses may get an equal start out of the gate yet only one will win any given race. And even within the losers will be found a wide disparity of achievement.
People are fond of saying that America has lost her “moral compass”. And I don’t necessarily disagree with them. But what I know for sure, as did our Founding Fathers, is that the fix will never be found through attempting to legislate morality or through government bailouts or handouts or government stimulus. Only when the power of the individual to choose and to choose freely – and to bear the consequences of their choices whether for better or for worse – is unleashed and is supported wholeheartedly by the government can the sum total of the individuals pursuing happiness bring about the prosperity and the magnanimity for which the American people are so well known.
In a keynote speech at a sales conference, business author Jim Collins once stated that, “Greatness is not a function of your circumstance. Greatness is a function, first and foremost, of your choices. And discipline.” This premise was, indeed, how this country came to exist. America is built of a hundred-million “rags to riches” stories and even today Lady Liberty still beckons, despite her dimming light. The inherent equality of opportunity remains a guiding dream yet if we stop teaching our children that opportunity isn’t enough but must be accompanied by right choices and discipline, and we continue to expect the government to step in and make good on all our own, individual bad choices, we stand to lose that dream. This is why the endless handouts, bailouts, buyouts, and stimulating budgets coming from the President and his new administration are all overt and dangerous, and why they threaten to tear that dream to pieces.
To understand this is to be able to stand up and say, “I hope he fails.”