Sunday Night With John: We The People...

“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” Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence July 4th 1776.

The idea that the pursuit of happiness was an unalienable human right is still a groundbreaking notion. Whether you are rich, poor, black, white, straight, gay and you live in this country and have the equal right to live as you please.  We have battled over the years to expand freedom and the definition of equal to include the end of slavery, women voting, and the civil rights movement.  Turns out separate but equal wasn’t equal. 

This week we took another step toward fulfilling the idea planted in 1776 with the addition of allowing people to marry whomever they fall in love no matter the gender. If we all are equal and allowed to freely pursue happiness we are closer to this idea. We must allow a same sex couple the chance to celebrate their 25th, or 50th wedding anniversary with friends and family.  My wife brings such happiness to my life; I can’t in good conscience deny that opportunity to another human being and call myself an American.

I know people are struggling with this notion that they some how feel the country has taken a moral down turn with this decision. Every crossroad we have taken to expand freedom across our population has lead to a stronger country, and moved the needle closer to Thomas Jefferson, and the fore fathers’ words, we are all created equal.  An idea is tough to live up to but over two hundred years we are stilling fighting to make the idea the ideal.

And if we need proof the idea of freedom needed improvement we need to look no further then the beginning of our constitution. “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” They knew their idea needed to be expanded upon, improved, and changed over time. The idea of, we are all created equal would be a work in progress. Last week we finally decided to allow everyone to find his or her perfect union. For a guy who preaches share emotions, emotions matter, I couldn't be happier the road to pursuing happiness was just repaved with a rainbow.