Actually, yes I do disagree with Tom. First off, the Declaration does not carry the force of law. This nation was not built off of the Declaration, but the Constitution. Two completely separate documents that really aren't even reconciled with each other.
All men are NOT created equal. But society owes the individual equal status before the law.
I'm 6' 6" tall. Are you?
I can do a 360-degree slam dunk. Can you?
I can hit a golf ball 340-yards down the fairway consistently. Can you?
You probably are capable of doing things that I could only dream of.
Get the point?
But let's talk turkey here. When Thomas Jefferson wrote these words, he didn't mean them. Did he? Talk to me, now!
But that's another topic.
However, I do appreciate the underlying message of what he wrote.
Next question.
Neither do the Ten Commandments, in your apparent worldview.
Regards
J.R.
Preach it, brother!
I'm 6' 6" tall. Are you?
6'3"
I can do a 360-degree slam dunk. Can you?
Um....I can usually hit the backboard from 10 feet, does that count?
I can hit a golf ball 340-yards down the fairway consistently. Can you?
Only if the ball has little JATO bottles mounted on it.
You probably are capable of doing things that I could only dream of.
I can troubleshoot a MIL-STD-188C Mode I circuit in twenty seconds while telling that really tasteless joke about Osama bin Laden, the camel, and the edible burkha.
I can do a 360-degree slam dunk. Can you?Show off...And yes, I can hit a golf ball 300 yards down the fairway. I'll admit that it slices off to the right quite often...[g]I can hit a golf ball 340-yards down the fairway consistently. Can you?
The word "equal", like every word, requires some context to be certain of meaning. In the context of the Declaration of Independence the word means more than just equal status before the law.
The Declaration was addressed to King George. It was a direct denial of the "divine right of Kings" which was the principle which allowed King George and his antecedants to hold absolute rule over the King's subjects in Great Britain.
The words following "all men are created equal", are "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, "
This further context shows that "equal status before the law" is only a part of what "equal" means. It also means that everyone has a right to life, without regard to what the law says. It means that everyone has a right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, without regard to what the law says. And that when government becomes destructive of these ends, they have the right to abolish it.
It is an extension of the "equal" endowment from their Creator which empowers us all in ways which go far beyond just having "equal status before the law".