Bonner wrote about “created” equal on Lew Rockwell.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner267.html
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Issues/2006/DRUS071106.html
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As for the main truth that Jefferson thought self-evident, that “all men are created equal,” we are even less certain. What made him think it was self-evident, we don’t know. All the evidence we’ve seen tells us just the opposite – men are not born equal. One is rich; one is poor. One is fat; one is skinny. One has Viking blue eyes and pale skin; the other is a Blackamoor with eyes like burning coals and skin the color of soot. Maybe twins are born equal, but the rest of us are as variable as snowflakes. No two are alike. No two are equal.
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So, since I was taught to think that Jefferson was absolutely correct, I jumped to his defense as I was taught many years ago.
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I’ve bought and read your book. I follow your writings in Worldnet Daily with interest. If I may be so bold, I think you’re not understanding a distinction that Jefferson was making.
I’d like to share a grammar school lesson I got in the fifth or sixth grade of Catholic elementary school. Bear in mind that this was the fifties, and the boys were taught by the Christian Brothers. These guys were tough. Many of them, if not all, were WWII or Korean War vets. And, they had answers for most tough questions. They also were pretty blunt. And, not a lot of patience for distinctions that did not make a difference. Strangely, they took a pretty strong position on the very topic you cited. So, clearly, it was not a trivial distinction to them.
Jefferson wrote ‘all men are created equal.’ To these battle-hardened vets, there was nothing ‘wrong’ about this assertion. Quizzically, they would say, ‘All men ARE created equal. But, all men are NOT born equal.’
They made a BIG deal out of that. You had to approach every person with an open mind. With justice for the SOBs (Swell Old Boys)! With charity for all the people who weren’t born with the advantages we had. Report cards had things like ‘respects the rights of others,’ ‘works well with others,’ and my personal favorite: ‘helps others reach their potential.’
There were a lot of funny lessons all designed to help us learn what they were trying to teach. There was one activity that had envelopes with rewards and punishments in them at random – with random rewards and punishments written on the outside. Lesson: Don’t judge a book by its cover! Tests where all the students’ grades were equal to the lowest grade in the class. Lesson: Teamwork! Classes were split into sections – smart, average, stupid, and dumb – with tests graded on improvement. Lesson: Just cause you’re smart doesn’t guarantee you’ll win! Halfway through a test, the rules were changed, no sympathy. Lesson: Life throws curves! And we had to adapt, live with it, and grow up.
So, there is a theoretical ‘created,’ like the theory of poker. And then there is the ‘born,’ like playing the hand you’re dealt.
Hope this ramble makes some sense, and explains what I think Jefferson was trying to say. Seems obvious to me, but then I was taught about life by some Marines.”
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I was absolutely tickled that it was reused in the Early To Rise issue.
Reinke Faces Life 
Well, I think the gubamint hurts everyone — rich, middle, and poor. And the class structure isn’t static. There is movement. Mostly a down draft!
While the poor may get food and shelter from the gubbamint, it stinks. From my contributions with Homeplace in Trenton, the State’s programs litterally enslave the poor in the chains of welfare. It’s no wonder it’s hard for them to free themselves from gubamint “help”.
The “rich” don’t have it that easy. Look at how many “rich” people are broke within decades. Mutli-generation families go poor to rich to poor again in three or four generations. Taxes, “rich man’s guilt”, stereotyping, and “morality traps” conspire to drag them back to poverty.
The middle class is getting squeezed in several directions at once. Taxes are huge on the middle class. Gubamint skools dumb down. Social security is a joke as an investment. Inflation really hurts by lowering real wages and raising costs silently.
See that’s the point of created equal and born equal. Equality is never ever going to happen. It’s an illusion. The best that can happened is that you get an equal opportunity to be the best that you can be. There’s no equality.
I think you make up the “difference” by being smarter, more disciplined, more focused, more precise, more, more, more. When you think about “equality”, then shoft your thinking to “advantage”. Even if someone wants the same thing as you, that doesn’t necessariily mean that you can have what you want or something better.
Life is not a zero sum game. Don’t compare yourself with others. If you do, you’ll find inequality. Seek to shift the measuring scale.
For example, the Kenya runner compared to me. I may have more computer knowledge than he does, but he can get out of Dodge quicker than I can. So, if I have to get out of town, I can call a cab. Redefine success.
IMHO
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I happen to agree that we are all created equal but we are not born equal. That is evident when you look at the social make up of our country. The rich continue to have babies just like the poor but their babies are born knowing that they will not have to work to hard for food and shelter. The poor are born knowing that they are poor but there are government programs that will help them eat and obtain shelter if they just fill out a few forms. What of the middle class? Stuck ? I think not I think they have the most advanatges and can do the most good. The middle is the group that has to work the hardest to achive a sense of created equal. That speaks for men being equal, but what about men verses woman equality? Will that ever happen, will women truly ever be equal?
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