We are not equal, and we
never will be. In his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on
August 28th 1963, Martin Luther King said “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.’ It is not self-evident and we were not born
equal, or even created equally by our circumstances. You will never be equal to me, and I will certainly
never be equal to you. Now before
someone yells ‘Get a rope!’ let me explain.
There is a mistaken idea in
this country that what we need is equality.
It cannot be achieved. Prince
will never play basketball as well as Michael Jordan. (Although I have read that he is a good
basketball player) And, Michael Jordan
will never be the musician that Prince is.
The children of Bill Gates will have financial and educational
opportunities that most people will never even get close to. And, a child born to a single parent on
welfare, living in an inner city slum, will have to struggle just to
survive. It is important to understand
this because you and I, and everyone else in this country should have the
opportunity to follow our dreams. We
should be judged by our merit, not limited by our resources, be they physical
or financial. In that same speech Martin Luther King also said “I have a dream
that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be
not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.” He was speaking about
equality of opportunity. If there is ever to be any progress, we need to start
now. If we fall down on our own—fine,
but we should not be held back by something such as our birth, or lack of
finances to get an education. Peter
Vallentyne states this concept in his article in the magazine Ethics April 2002
issue. “Equality of initial opportunities for advantage calls for equality in
the value of the initial decision trees that each agent confronts.”
There is a hard thing I need
to discuss now, and it’s going to upset a lot of people. Almost every group, or
individual, has been persecuted at one time or another. It is time to get over it. I think I can safely say that every living
person today is the descendant of; a murderer, someone murdered, a slave owner,
a slave, a criminal, and a victim. I’m
sure you have heard this quote from the Bible, “The
son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father
bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous
will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon
himself." (Ezekiel 18:20) The
Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) have even made it
their second Article of Faith. “We
believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s
transgression.” It is not my intention
to have a religious discussion. I just
quote truth where I find it. I only want
to show the logical train of thought, that we should let go the wrongs of the
past, and move on to the wrongs that are happening to us as a people here and
now. There are plenty of things to
champion and correct now, we do not need to go looking behind us. If we find discrimination here and now, we
should shine the light of truth on it, and cut it out of our society.
I have
one last bone to pick here, and I hope you will endulge me a bit, I think that the whole use
of, Asian-American, African-American, etc. is counterproductive. Through modern research of mitochondrial DNA,
it has been found that all homosapiens have descended from one woman in central
Africa . In a very real sense, we Americans are all
African Americans. If you have to use a
designation of your immediate heritage use, “of descent,” for example, my
father was born and raised in Denmark
The first concept we need to
understand is, why we are not equal.
Next, how we came to this mistaken idea and how it is hurting us. And finally, what we can do to achieve
equality of opportunity.
We are born unequal, and the
gap only widens from there. There are two basic ways we are unequal, physically
and mentally. Aside from the obvious of
someone being physically stronger and larger than someone else, there are other
differences. People of African heritage
are more likely to develop Sickle Cell Anemia, an inherited blood disorder. People of Jewish heritage are more likely to
develop Tay-Sacks disease, a deterioration of the central nervous system. The
list goes on and on. There are just too
many to mention. According to the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute pamphlet, Facts about Sickle Cell
Anemia, “In this country, (Sickle Cell Anemia) affects approximately 72,000
people, most of whose ancestors come from Africa . The disease occurs in approximately 1 in every 500 African-American
births and 1 in every 1,000-1,400
Hispanic-American births. Approximately 2 million Americans, or 1 in 12 African Americans, carry
the sickle cell trait.” According to the
Saint Barnabas Health Care System website on November
5th 2003 .
http://www.sbhcs.com/genetics/index.html, “Approximately 1 in 25 Ashkenazi Jews are
carriers. Tay-Sachs is caused by an enzyme deficiency.”
We are also unequal in our
mental abilities. Once again let’s go beyond
the obvious of mental disorders and I.Q. Males and females have long been known to have
different abilities in math and science, and although the evidence now shows
that the social environment may have more to do with it than previously
thought, biology still seems to play a part, in the form of predisposition. Regardless, the difference is there and just
grows larger as time goes on. According
to the National Network for Child Care's Connections Newsletter May 1996,
“Until recently, it was believed that all male-female differences in math and
science were caused by biology. In other words, girls' and boys' brains are
different, so they are better suited for different things. Evidence shows that
boys do excel in math, and girls appear to do better in verbal-related skills.” Also from the above article, “More recently,
researchers have focused on the influence of the social environment on
children's math and science achievement. Very early on, boys are given the
chance to tinker with toys or objects (for example, building blocks, Legos,
racing cars, and simple machines) that involve many of the principles inherent
in math and science. Girls often lack these experiences, so they enter math and
science classrooms feeling insecure about their abilities.”
The founding fathers did us
a disservice in how they chose to speak of equality. It was this simple but powerful statement that
set us on a course of misunderstanding.
The Declaration of Independence read in congress July 4th 1776 said, “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 San Francisco
Equality of opportunity is possible and can be achieved. That equality of opportunity can be achieved is the most
important argument for supporting it.
Just by understanding the problem often brings forth the solution. Irving Kristol said in his book, On the
Democratic Idea in America America
Recent research has given us
a better understanding of our abilities and the abilities of those individuals
we have come to call “Genius.” It seems
that you and I have far more potential than we had previously thought. You may have heard recently that it takes ten
thousand hours of practice to become an expert in most anything. What I have been able to discern from what I
have read, and then contemplated is there are people among us that have a
predisposition, for one ability or another, to one degree or another. That predisposition accounts for a far
smaller percentage of our ability than was once previously thought. Through application of a process called deliberate
practice, a slow
process, and involves repetition of small and detailed parts
of a skill instead of just playing through. We can make up
for our lack of a predisposition. What
it comes down to is, if we want an ability enough to put in the practice, we
can most likely have it. All we have to
do is be willing to sacrifice.
I would like to make a small
digression here. Sacrifice is not a
dirty world. To my way of thinking, sacrifice
means giving up something now, for something you want more, later. In our instant gratification society, we have
lost the meaning of this great word.
Sacrifice also gives you a sense of satisfaction when you finally obtain
it. When you work hard for something, it
means much more to you.
One
last thing on this point; I realize that equality of opportunity cannot be achieved
for everyone all of the time, but we cannot refuse to do nothing, just because
we cannot do everything. Perfection is
more of an ideal to strive for, than an expected resolt of our endeavors. We should do what we can and praise ourselves
for the progress.
If you
gain nothing else from this essay, I would like you to remember these three things; we
are not equal, that this mistaken idea is part of the problem that is holding
us back. And finally, equality of
opportunity will allow all of us the chance to achieve our dreams.
The beauty of life comes,
not from what we get out of life, but from what we put into it. I’d like to leave you with these words, “I
saw a vision of life so wonderful, through dreams realized, journeys
accomplished, and potentials fulfilled.”
Kail Andersen
