Has The U.S. Ignored The Declaration of Independence?

The Declaration of Independence is a piece of parchment wrote on by the Founding Fathers to grant certain freedoms and rights to Americans.  But still in today’s society, those rights written in the Declaration do not apply for all people.

There is not diversity in gender or race in the committee that is formed to write the Declaration of Independence.  The editors: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and the writer of the document Thomas Jefferson are all white American men.  The Congress of the 13 colonies put these men in a committee together on June 11, 1776.  Thomas Jefferson writes, “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.”  In his quote, he uses the words “all men.”  In writing “all men,” he does mean men, women, Native Americans, blacks, and men of all social classes doesn’t he?  Well, he obviously does not.  In this time period, white American men that held large plots of land are only granted these rights.  Not until later on do men of all social classes, women, Native Americans, and blacks receive the unalienable rights promised to them in the Declaration of Independence.

Today, Latin Americans are still fighting for these unalienable rights provided in the Declaration of Independence.  In the past several decades, there have been many millions of Latin Americans illegally migrating to the United States.  They migrate for the promise of a better life than what they currently have.  Many of these Latin Americans have been in the United States for several decades and some even have citizenship to the United States.  Many have worked American jobs, had children, and stimulated the economy of the United States, and yet they are still denied the rights provided by our Founding Fathers.  They are commonly denied higher paid job opportunities and deeds to houses in suburban communities.  Latin Americans deserve the rights promised in the Declaration of Independence of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  They are American too.