In an article of the same name a discussion offered the idea that with enough rules and regulations people could become equal.
Bah! Is my initial and follow-up reaction.
Equality is a complete impossibility.
Even though we state that, "All men [and women] are created equal...
" everyone one know from life experience that this is an absolute non-truth.
From the moment of conception we are not equal.
The closest that can come is when specific sperm and egg donors of particular size, talent, or intelligence are united under laboratory conditions.
But even then, at least in this point in time, there is still much left to chance.
Our parents carried certain genes, passed down through generations, and happenstance combined the union and created us.
We are unique individuals to be shaped by nature as well as nurture.
I am the sole being who is "me" and so you instantly understand that equality is not in this dimension.
As for "mandating", authorizing and directing equality does not slide together like hand and glove.
Everyone behind the "mandate" arrives with certain background experiences and biases that shape outlook, personal preference and prejudice, and view of life.
While we can try to erase all of these influences, we also have to admit, they remain.
They have to remain as they are a part of what makes us a human being.
Even more obvious is the oddity of the word "mandating".
Just look at it and what is the first word you perceive? MAN.
The term itself becomes unequal as it is no "womandating", "humandating" (oh! See the man in that!), or "persondating".
All wordplay aside equality is not a concept or ideal to be commanded by law or directed by a leader.
Equality is a human condition.
As I have pointed out, from birth we are hereditarily unequal, but we are also socially and economically unequal.
We are born into different families who live within a variety of circumstance.
Our parents may be educated or not; we may have siblings or not; we may live in the United States or not.
We may be surround by wealth and luxury or by poverty.
These are out of our control as we arrive where we arrive without instruction or pre-destination - unless of course, you adhere to this philosophy in which case most of this may not lie within your realm of belief.
Several years ago my niece, unable to find a compatible mate, realized that she still wanted a child and to be a Mom.
When intro-fertilization failed numerous times, she thought she would become a foster parent with the hope that that child would become hers to adopt.
The day finally arrived when Angelina entered the world and my niece gathered her in her arms and brought her home.
While typically babies are not released from the hospital when they weigh less than five pounds, Angelina whose mother was in prison with no money or medical insurance, came home at 4.
5 pounds.
She was a tiny sight to behold.
Her weak cries sounded more like mews and her preemie t-shirt covered her twice over.
But she was beautiful and a delight.
The doctor chatted with my niece as she handed Angelina over and confessed, "There were three men in delivery room: one maybe father; a second maybe father; a brother maybe father.
Absolutely strange!" Angelina's Mom already had seven children and she did not want another; her grandmother was not interested in raising another grandchild.
The potential fathers did not really care.
It looked as if Angelina had found a permanent home, away from poverty and crime, a place where she would be loved and cared for and in time erase some of the inequality from which she had come.
As you have probably guessed, the court and social system determined that Angelina, just one week old and beginning to thrive, would be better with her grandma and that someday - actually 1,769 days - Mom would be out of prison, clean, and home.
As a result little Angelina was whisked out of my niece's life and back to her origins.
I understand but then again, I do not.
As for my niece, with a broken heart, she vowed, "Never again.
" Other areas where equality is a rallying cry include politics and religion.
Cut taxes! Eliminate social services! Ban national testing based on what all students should know and be able to do to be successful post-high school! Reject school breakfast and lunch policies.
What if kids are hungry? Not my problem! Close parks, leave potholes, forget freeway maintenance! Remove maximum political funding laws and let the winner be the one who has bowed to and accept monies from all angles and sides! Save money at all costs and in the meantime, abolish inequality forever, right? But while you are at it do not ever stop, reduce funding, or in any way prevent me from receiving every benefit I currently get or ones that might come to me in the future.
Religion also has a pronouncement of equality, "Equal in the eyes of God".
In the meantime women are denied priesthood, children live in squalor on the steps of the church where they beg, birth control for parishioners to prevent spiraling birth rate and death of babies born into poverty is denied.
Instead turn a blind eye when those in power are accused or convicted of heinous crimes.
Toss some money left and right and everything is forgotten and forgiven.
All will be good.
Whether the position is CEO or director, party leader or school principal, we cannot mandate equality.
It is impossible and futile.
To say one man here and one woman there in alternating demands is not the answer.
Rather it is time to really ponder the topic and its multi-faceted solutions.
When we can treat each other kindly and with dignity regardless of race, religion, social and economic level, educational attainment, and all of those others "uniquities" that make us stand out as special, distinctive, and exceptional individuals, then maybe equality will move from nebulous mirage to a cemented foundation.