“All Men [i.e., Humans] Are Created Equal.”
“All humans are created equal,” is a statement of empathy. It is empathy that gives this statement an immediate biologically based feeling of truth. It is true in our bodies. It was developing as we humans developed as mammals. It was true on July 4, 1776 when it was articulated as a profound insight and asserted as the fundamental basis of a new nation. It is true now.
Empathy is so biologically integral to our humanity, to what it means to be a person, that the statement can stand as true even without including the phrase, “are created.” “All humans are equal,” is a statement of felt bodily empathy. No doubt such empathy contributed to the formation of all societies and cultures as well as The Golden Rule: Treat others as you would want to be treated.
It is this body-based empathy that reacts to the word “men” in the original statement that we are all equal, fearing that it doesn’t connote women humans and non-white humans.
As deeply embedded in our bodies as empathy is, as much as it has contributed to human evolution, our resilience, and our capacity to love, empathy makes us more vulnerable. We cannot exist independently of each other, our planet, and its other creatures. We are disrupted by loss. We have to get along to go on. We are interdependent.
No doubt, we tend to feel and like to think that greed, the appearance of individual strength and power, wars, emotional numbness, and isolation will protect us from our many vulnerabilities in relationship.
Alas, it is not less empathy that will protect and save us. Empathy is a human capacity that has evolved for the good. We need more of it to survive and flourish, not less of it. We need to learn to get better at empathy and relationship, not abandon them.
One essential way to get better at empathy and relationship is respecting, welcoming, and listening to other equal humans.
On our nation’s birthday, while celebrating its foundational empathic truth of equality for all, let’s work toward respecting and listening to more people, not less. Let’s clearly work toward more people voting, not less; so we hear the voices of more people and respect what they say. Let’s make it easier for people to vote, not more difficult. Let’s clearly work toward justice for all and no one being above the law, rather than selfishness, corruption, and greed. Let’s clearly respect the human rights of immigrants and actively care for them, the risks they take and the positive contributions they make.
While our founding document declares independence from another nation, it bases that declaration on the experiences of the people signing it who empathically and explicitly shared a common humanity, common truths, and a desire to work together interdependently.
Let’s celebrate empathy on this 4th of July and the embodied truth embedded within our nation’s founding that all humans are equal. Let’s work toward more empathy, not less.
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