t is a very good thing that The Declaration of Independence was written some 200 years ago.  This is because it seems rather unlikely that such a fundamental document could be written nowadays.  One of the most extraordinary lines of The Declaration reads” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . .”  Now, how would a contemporary re-phrasing of that statement read?  Well, to begin with, the word “men” would have to be stricken from the text and replaced by either “people” or “human beings” or “individuals”.  That, alas, is not so bad. 

The statement “All individuals are created equal” still sounds pretty lofty.  But what is this talk about human beings being created?  Certainly, not everyone holds that view.  So, I suppose that what we would have to say is that “All individuals are born equal”.  But wait a minute.  Who on earth believes that?  Clearly, we are not all born equal.  Any fool can see that!  Should we all have the same rights?  The answer, surely, depends on what rights we are talking about.  

This, in turn, raises the question of what is all this talk about truths, anyway.  After all, while you may think there are moral truths, this hardly means that I must think that.  Morals, some insists, are nothing more than a set of rules and precepts created by men — sorry: I mean human beings. 

So where does this leave us?  Perhaps with the following: “Some of us think that some people are born equal in certain respects”.  Well, who can possibly disagree with that?  No one.  But then some people think all sorts of things.  Thus, the assertion that “Some of us think that some people are born equal in certain respects” is hardly inspiring.  One does not imagine that Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech would have been much animated by that line of thought.  After all, the idea that “Some people are born equal to one another” is hardly an argument for claiming that blacks are entitled to equality.  This holds all the more so, since we are only talking about an idea — and not an immutable moral truth.  Besides, two people born equally poor and outcast are born equal to one another in a given respect. 

Now, it should be most disconcerting that some 200 years later it is far from obvious that “We the People”, who take ourselves to be far more enlightened, would not be able to produce an equally inspiring re-writing of The Declaration of Independence in contemporary terms.  In fact, this ought to be a downright embarrassment. 

How can it be that we cannot state with even greater eloquence and moral force that which was asserted some 200 years ago by people who have been accused of all sorts of moral biases?  How can this be, given that precisely what we claim to be true is that we have a much better grasp, both theoretically and experientially, of the very idea of equality than the authors of The Declaration of Independence could even have imaged.  If it is true that we have a better grasp of equality both theoretically and experientially, then something is terribly amiss if, as it would seem, we cannot even get a contemporary statement The Declaration of Independence off the ground that is, at the very least, equally rhapsodic. 

I mean nowadays talk about moral truths is already a stumbling block.  Yet, where would society be without precisely that kind of talk in terms of equality?

If Mr. Jefferson captured something very right, but just used very poor language to express it — I am referring here to the talk about truths — one would think that we could come up with a rendering of what he should have said that is more than adequate. 

Alas, not only is the very talk about moral truth problematic for us nowadays, we cannot even express the very content of that truth, namely that “All men are created equal”, with greater force and vivacity — to say nothing of eloquence.  We might substitute “individuals” for “men”.  That substitution, however, does not add to the majesty of the claim.

It is profoundly serendipitous that it is better to say that “All men are created equal” than it is to say that “All men are born equal”.  The language of divinity does more justice to what we want to say than any language tied to the actual facts of the human existence.  The reality is that life is fraught with a multitude of difference between human beings, across so-called ethnic differences and within such differences.  These differences range from the beautiful to the homely and from the brilliant to the less than able.  If we had to look to the actual reality of life for an unequivocal way of asserting that we are all equal, it would seem that our endeavor would meet with failure. 

Precisely what we want to say is that beneath or in spite of all of our differences we share a commonality that has an inalienable moral force to it.  And we want this to be a truth that is not just a matter of convenience.  Nothing gives that idea more credence and power and majesty than the assertion that every human being has no more and no less of a claim than any other human being to having been created by God.  

You will notice that I have only focused upon one sentence in The Declaration of Independence.  Yet, it nonetheless one of the most powerful and inspirational sentences ever to have been written.  It is humbling that for all our claims to grasp equality, both theoretically and experientially, we have not even come close to fashioning a more eloquent —nay, a more perfect— statement what equality should mean. 

To not be mindful of this reality, and to not see and appreciate the depth of what has been handed to us, is to become arrogant and full of pride.  And in this regard, there is an even more ancient saying that I recall.  It is a Proverb that reads: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”.  How would a contemporary rendering of this Proverb go?  That, of course, is another essay.