The Declaration of Independence protects your opportunity to improve your life, no matter who you are. It boldly proclaims:
“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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The American Founding Fathers introduced the revolutionary idea that each person’s desire to pursue their idea of happiness was not self-indulgence, but a necessary driver of a prosperous society. They created a government to defend that right for everyone. The pursuit of happiness became the driver of the entrepreneurial spirit that defines the American free market economy.
However, did Thomas Jefferson the architect of this quote mean that ONLY WHITE men were created equal? Both the rich and the poor? Or was it meant to extend to all races,?
The idea that the poor are genetically different from the rich or that men are naturally more intelligent than women may seem laughable but it’s an argument regularly used as a social weapon to stall the advancement of equality and maintain the status quo.
Since the discovery of DNA, the idea that genes are somehow responsible for everything has permeated society. Claims about discoveries of genes for intelligence, poverty and crime offer pseudoscientific explanations for rising rates of inequality and discrimination. In her film, A Dangerous Idea, Stephanie Welch does a great job in showing the science underpinning these beliefs has been thoroughly debunked.
However, what was done in the name of Eugenics, an attempt to weed out the undesirables, the feeble minded, the native Americans, blacks, those who were born with disabilities, by sterilizing children and adults alike.
Stephanie Welch is the Director, Producer and Co-writer of the film ‘A Dangerous Idea’. She is also executive director of Paragon Media, a
nonprofit media organization that co-produced A DANGEROUS IDEA. Stephanie is the senior producer of the award-winning syndicated program Bioneers Radio: Revolution from the Heart of Nature. Welch co-produced the radio documentary Biowars: First Do No Harm, which won a NFCB Silver Reel Award. Stephanie is also audio engineer for
Women Rising Radio.
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