"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain and unalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
The Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776
The pursuit of happiness. What is happiness exactly for the everyday American? Is that driving an oversized, environmentally damaging SUV to Starbucks in the morning to enjoy your latte before work, or is it the moment when you put the 2 karat solitaire on your girl's finger and she says yes? Is it going on a vacation to Disney, buying your child his first football jersey, or later in life sending him/her to a college. Is it buying a four bedroom house for wife, kid and 2.5 children with the intentions of turning that extra room into an exercise room so you can stop paying gym fees? All right...so if it isn't any of those subtly snide suggestions, what is stress then? Is it taking job or a second job in retail or food service to pay your bills? Is it moving to a different state or different part of the country to pursue cheaper cost of living or higher wages? Is it balancing your checkbook to make sure the bank isn't cheating you out of three dollars, or putting up a firewall to make sure your children can't get too far out of the parent approved zone or hackers can't get in? Or is it possibly picking up a newspaper and finding a tiny back page article about another oil spill in the north atlantic that has killed thousands of animals. Maybe it's an article about where that diamond on your hand or in your wife's ring came from and the fact that America imports 2/3ds of the world's diamond purchases. So while you're enjoying your next latte bitching about the guy who cut you off in his imported sports car or the raise you didn't get from your insane boss maybe it'll run across your mind that while all men might have been created equally they hardly live equally or get treated as such. It's hard to imagine that in my lifetime the Berlin wall fell, and the last of the apartheid laws were abolished. It's hard to imagine how many men and women haven't come home from wars and war zones abroad because they died protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Hardly shameless myself of the crime of indifference and ignorance this is not a judgment. It's a suggestion or a wakeup call. It's easy to believe that one person can't make a difference, but everyone who has in the course of human history was just one person at one time. It might not be your call to change the world, but how do you know it's not worth it if you don't try?
