"...all men are created equal..."

"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."

I have been mulling over this part of the Declaration of Independence in light of the ongoing push for egalitarianism and social justice and I finally conclude (to my dismay) that Jefferson got it wrong.

If we were all created equal, we would
- all run the 100 meters in 9.58 seconds
- make new discoveries in quantum mechanics
- not consider Ron Jeremy's anatomy to be remarkable

It is obvious that we are not all equal in any way that our capabilities can be measured. Perhaps it should have said "...are created with equal opportunity..." or that the next phrase, referring to inalienable rights, might have covered what was necessary about liberty.

In any case, I see that the misapplication of the "equal" ideal is leading to many of the current issues causing problems today. The claim to equality at birth leads some to believe that we should all have equal outcomes in our lives. The move towards eliminating school grades, removing winners and losers from kids' competition and using affirmative action instead of objective testing are only a few of the warped applications of this misleading idea. As a result, we are being dumbed down to our lowest common (but equal) denominator.