The Separation

When I first learned about the Declaration of Independence I was in elementary school. I then grew

up and learned more and more about the Bill of Rights and the radical ideals it espouses. That we each have inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Lovely ideals. Necessary for a flourishing representative democracy. 

But what happens when my pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness bumps into yours? How can each individual in America pursue their own course of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? What if you like to smoke and I have asthma? What if your goal is to make as much money as possible and mine is to work as little as possible? What if you believe it should be Adam and Eve and I believe it can also be Adam and Steve? 

How do we reconcile such polar opposites to live in harmony with one another? Should we continue down the path of only interacting with those that believe the same as us? Only loving and showing kindness to those that believe the same way as us? Leaving each sector of our nation to interact with it's own kind?

No, we cannot do that. We cannot isolate ourselves into homogeneous groups. Our nation tried that. It failed. That kind of existence is bland and lonely. It is a recipe for isolationism, racism, putting people and races into small, stereotypes that rob us of our uniqueness and beauty. 

We must become a nation that has space for each of those that are in our country. For those that want to join in our nation. We must hold space for all those that come to our borders, our ports. To embrace the motto on the Statue of Liberty. To offer respite and freedom from persecution as our forefathers did. We must become a country willing to try. Willing to try and understand those with an accent. Trying to understand a different perspective. Realizing that we are all coming at the problems our people, country and even world face and that someone on the other side of the aisle may have a better solution than our own. That is ok. Because my neighbor disagrees with my opinion does not make them my enemy. It simply offers an opportunity for discourse, conversation. Not for either one of us to be convinced of the others opinion but for both of us to understand what the other has to say. I tell you the same thing I tell my kids, I don't have to agree with you to love you. We are able to hold different opinions and still be family. And our opinions can always change as we grow in our knowledge and awareness of the world. 

The Bill of Rights is a dangerous document to have out there in the public. Someone might actually read the Bill of Rights in its entirety and then act upon them. They might see this radical idea that we can all be given equal rights and then desire to pursue that for themselves and their children. Let us be a people, a nation that embraces that philosophy. That each of us has the right to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.