This is simply an anachronistic flaw in our basic principles. It has resulted in a Civil War, a Civil Rights Movement, a Feminist Movement, a Gay Rights Movement, a Torture Policy, a lot of bad things. Personally, I don’t think it’s a trivial or semantic point. I think we really need to fix it. "We are all created equal" should have no loophole, no amendments. And we need to affirm that the only legitimate way to withdraw those rights for any human being is by conviction in a court of law that holds that one is innocent until proven guilty, that offers habeas corpus, and that adheres to due process. "We, the people" means "We, all of the people."
Frankly, I personally doubt that the persistent racism/racialism apparent in the southern vote is any conscious attempt to deny that "we are all created equal." I expect it’s roots are much more firmly rooted in fear, in history, in misperception, in numerous factors – some of which are very real. But changing it from a bad motive to a more understandable motive doesn’t move it closer to a solution. Having Barack Obama in the White House is clearly a potential move towards solution, if he continues to carry himself in the non-divisive way he showed us in the campaign. But what else can be done? Certainly, the point is not to convert people from being Republicans to Democrats. I only used the Republican vote to illustrate my point because I think it did, clearly, represent in this instance the strong persistent racial divide in the South. And the problem isn’t even the racial divide itself. It’s human nature for like people to congregate. The problem is the fear-based hostility that still characterizes this particular divide. It has moved in my lifetime, but oh so slowly. And there are still miles to go before we sleep. That said, they got the next part right, "that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
It’s easy to define the problem. It’s also easy to talk about how it should be. It’s obviously not so easy to know how to approach the problem of the persistence of the racial divisions in the South. Somehow just waiting for the generations to pass in hopes that it will wear away hasn’t been terribly effective. It seems to me that it’s time for initiatives – moves from both sides to mend this ancient wound. That’s based on my solid sense that prejudices and fears melt when individuals get together and actually know each other. The shared human-ness overwhelms powerful differences. That was the hope of school integration, but as we know, a private system of segregation via private schools, home schooling, and "white flight" neighborhoods undermined the idea. And frankly, the forced integration – while it may have been necessary – also had the down side of lasting resentments. How to approach increasing the personal encounter of races in the South remains unsolved, but certainly not insoluable…
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