Equality versus Freedom

To the illustrious Mr. Pot:

Today, I choose to skewer one of liberalism's most sacred of cows...the fictitious concept of equality.

For those on the left who seem to envelop themselves in a euphoric fog whenever the concept of equality is mentioned, I will exercise bluntness and brevity: You can have equality or you can have freedom, but you can't have both. Equality and freedom can rarely if ever walk peacefully together hand in hand.

My good friends on the left will excitedly invoke the oft quoted phrase attributed to St. Thomas Jefferson assuring that “all men are created equal.....”. While good old Tom did not employ the use of asterisks when composing phrases in our nation's Declaration of Independence, that lofty idea about being created equal certainly begs for such punctuation. In colonial times, if you were a wealthy Caucasian land owner who engaged in the barbaric practice of buying and selling human beings for the purpose of forced labor, then you gladly rejoiced in the fact that only you and all of your chums were certainly created equal. Unfortunately, the Don of Monticello did not extend such equality to women, or blacks, or the hoi poloi of his time. In fact it was a pretty limited club with most members frequently seen wearing powdered wigs. But to a mindless leftie, if Thomas Jefferson said it then it must be true.
Common sense and rational thought (I'll wait a second while the Libs get out the garlic to ward away those evil thoughts) dictate that we are NOT created equal. A young man who is destined to grow up to be 5”2” will never play center for an NBA team nor would he ever be likely to out rebound Wilt Chamberlain. Conversely, he very well might grow up to be a neurosurgeon, a profession I think most of us agree would never find a doctor named Wilt the Stilt.

Height, weight, hair color, ear size, I.Q., complexion....all differentiate human beings. The amazing thing about our country is not that we are all created equal. In spite of misguided and unsuccessful concepts like the so-called War on Poverty, our country tries very hard to establish the same “starting line” for everyone. From that point on, it's simply up to individual ability, attitude, and talent. That's where the equality ends (if it was ever there to begin with).

Now we come to the conundrum of the left...how can they achieve equality? The first stop of course is through legislation and if that doesn't fly, there's always a friendly federal judge willing to legislate from the bench. Congress can pass laws which seem to mandate equality or at least punish people who seem to have a magical ability to keep others from being equal. Sounds kinda silly, doesn't it? To cite an extreme example, I will use our vertically challenged 5'2” friend. Because of his lack of height, kindhearted individuals on the left will ascribe his condition as a disability. The first question they will pose to the Commissioner of the NBA is this: “How many 5'2” centers do you have playing in your organization?” The answer of course would be: NONE. The saliva now begins to flow, as the Libs smack their lips in anticipation of their most vaunted of charges...DISCRIMINATION!!!!! The country needs a law so that 5'2” people all over the nation can play center in the NBA. Sounds like an absurd proposition but the Libs have a sanitized term for it. They call it “leveling the playing field”. To move from the ridiculous to the real world, let's consider the concept of quotas.

I'm not comfortable in any way with great liberal thinkers like Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi determining what a level playing field looks like. And that's the problem with quotas. I remember back in the 70's, the Norfolk Police and Fire Departments had a very difficult time recruiting minorities. The entrance exam, which consisted of basic math and English, seemed to be the stumbling block, and the head of the local NAACP called for abolishing the test but only for minority candidates. A local city councilman and former Marine who happened to be black, took exception to that demand. He stated in no uncertain terms that he did not want police officers and firefighters in his city who were illiterate. He went further to state that he was personally insulted by the inference that young blacks were simply too stupid to be a police officer or a firefighter.

We are all familiar with the advent of gender into the equality battles. It should be noted that I favor anyone being able to seek any type of employment and I am equally dedicated to the fact that if they are qualified and denied a position because of their sex or skin color, there should be immediate and severe consequences for those practicing genuine discrimination. That being said, we go back to the concept of a level playing field. The physical demands and standards of an officer in training at one of our country's elite military academies were established long before there was any thought of women being there. So, it must be assumed that there were no inherent discrimination practices involved in determining those requirements. They simply decided what a well rounded, physically capable officer in the United States Armed Forces should be required to demonstrate. A great many female candidates found the physical requirements daunting and consequently the playing field was “leveled” for those candidates only.

The consequence behind this approach to government established “equality” is that it always involves
a loss of freedom in some way. The popular term is reverse discrimination and is exemplified by admission standards at many of our nation's institutes of higher learning. Poorer achieving minorities are frequently admitted over higher achieving non minorities. In the liberal mind, there is overwhelming justification for such practices. Their logic concludes that two wrongs DO equal a right.

As usual, Mr. Pot, the time and words fly by much too quickly. I will conclude with this thought: While Jefferson posited that all men are created equal, he also ascertained that these same men were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I wonder if Mr. Jefferson was alive today, would he also include in that listing the right of a 5'2” man to play center in the NBA?

Respectfully,

Mr. Kettle