“Everyone has the right to self-determination and—happiness.”
—Jonathan Sprout and Rodney Whittenberg, Force For Good
According to the National Archives, “After a public reading of the Declaration of Independence at Bowling Green, on July 9, 1776, New Yorkers pulled down the statue of King George III.” The act reflected one of the document’s missions: rally the colonists to fight for the freedom to govern themselves.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” states The Declaration of Independence, In Congress, July 4, 1776. The Declaration’s bold statement, preserved in master penmanship, set forth ideas to be accepted as universal truths, and supported the rally cry.
So, what if instead of “men” it was written that all people are created equal and that all people are endowed with the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?
The Right to Pursue Happiness
It’s a tricky proposition to put words in History’s mouth. Like a bowl of alphabet soup in a New England-clam-chowder base, it’s a bit murky. What is clear is that We the People, we human beings, one species, Homo sapiens of all colors—and our human tendencies—have not changed much. What’s a short 240-plus-years evolution compared to the span of 300,000 years spreading out over the planet, hunting and gathering, or 12,000 years ago when we figured out how to grow food and then planted ourselves? With our big brains we’ve changed the earth’s landscape forever, one year at a time, and much of that time as bad monkeys, treating Mother Earth like our personal pantry instead of our spiritual keeper. Earth’s dwindling biodiversity is proof that a superiority complex is not sustainable. But our beliefs, our social framework of taboos and norms, science and industry, keeps morphing and rolling along, carrying us to new heights even as we trudge through the abundant debris of out-of-step ideas that persist even after we know better. (See above, “human tendencies.”) You may have heard that “history doesn’t repeat, it persists.”
But our big brain can imagine big, good ideas too, and fulfill them. With today’s understanding that all people are equal (and many agree that all life, all living beings, deserve equal respect), we can look back and share a picture of what could have been set in motion if the social structure of the time allowed a declaration of independence for all people—including the right to pursue Happiness. We can imagine the rich gifts our society receives when all people are free to fulfill their great potential, reach for their Happiness. We can expect our social structures today to support self-determination for all—and work together to that end. Where “history persists” we see how uniting pulls us forward. Post-WWII’s atrocities, an international team of men and women, including indelible leadership from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, set forth the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights which is considered the foundation of international human rights law. Article 1 states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Today we might choose to write “in a spirit of union” or add “sisterhood,” but the declaration is clear: our humanness links us, can uplift us and all things being equal, empowers us to fulfill our greatest imaginings.
—Hillary Black, Editor, Force For Good