The concept of equality when applied to people raises the question as to what characteristics apply under the concept. I would wager very few.
“Created equal” under the Declaration seems invoke that with which are all endowed apart from any effort on their part: the unalienables. Everything else is a mess that necessitates legal code. For citizens of the USA that code derives from the six objectives stated in the Preamble.
I have spoken with dozens of public officials over the past months and it become all too clear that they need assistance in articulating the core purpose of their offices as related to the same.
““Created equal” under the Declaration seems invoke that with which are all endowed apart from any effort on their part: the unalienables.”
And what is it that which we are equally endowed with?
Our genes? Which determine our intelligence, height, whether we’re a beauty queen or a hag, diseases we may inherit, the color of our skin, our likes and dislikes, etc, etc, etc
I consider the “we’re all created equal” in the declaration a noble “feel good” lie that has actually ended up causing much of today’s societal problem by giving people that believe or want to demagogue that lie constitutional cover. (I’ll give the founders some slack, though. They didn’t know anything about genetics back then).
The most obvious truth on earth is that we are not all created equal, all you got to do is open your eyes and look at anyone around you.
Regarding the subject of equality, I like much more what Tocqueville had to say about it.
“There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom. “