Think back to the year 1776 when Thomas Jefferson and his other four committee members sat down to write The Declaration of Independence. "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 stated in this paragraph what our perfect society should be.
First things first, "all men are created equal." Think to yourself for a minute. Are all people really created equal? If so, then why do we have minorities in school and on campus? Racism is not as bad as it used to be back in the sixties and early seventies, but it definitely has not gone away either. I am completely against racism, but what I do not understand is how is it fair that if I went into a company and gave them my resume and a couple days later an African-American went to the same place and gave them a resume, then he or she would more likely get hired just because they're a minority. It just does not seem like society has the right idea on everyone being equal.
The next part of Thomas Jefferson's paragraph I want to talk about is "Liberty." What exactly is liberty? According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, liberty means "the condition of being not subject to restriction or control." Freedom of speech is a good example of a liberty of ours. If you ask me though, we do not really have freedom of speech. If I were to state my opinion on lets say President Bush in the wrong way or as freely as I would like to, I would probably have the CIA jumping out of my computer and arresting me. Why shouldn't we be able to state our opinion? Why should we have to watch out for what we write down if in the First Amendment it gives us the freedom of speech? Society seems to have different views on what freedom of speech means also.
