OPINION: The principle, the original sin, and the ongoing struggle

I referred in my previous opinion column to a giant ethical catastrophe that was part of the origin story of our country.

I was referring, obviously, to slavery.

America is premised on one fundamental idea contained in a document that's celebrating its 250th birthday this week: That all people are born equal, endowed with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Everybody gets a fair shot.

That's a powerful premise, the root of it all. It is really what we're celebrating, in my humble opinion. Our origin story is one of disagreement, arguing, politics, compromise - and the establishment of a founding principle that we've tried to live up to ever since.

From the get-go, the struggle has been the conflict between reality - which has often fallen short - and the ideal itself. Obviously when one group of people can buy and sell another group of people whose skin color is different, those being bought and sold are not "born equal," not endowed with unalienable rights. Or, to put it another way, if they're "born equal," then there's something seriously wrong if the laws of the day allow them to be treated as slaves.

The political compromises required to bring about the Declaration of Independence, and to create the nation out of thin air, quite obviously violated our founding principle.

Which is what led, four score and seven years later, to the Civil War, The tension between the idea and the reality became too great, and the bonds broke. We here in Kansas were at the heart of that conflict. We chose equality and freedom. We chose to stick by the promise.

Abraham Lincoln, in the greatest speech in American history, said that the fundamental question being tested by the Civil War was whether government of the people, by the people and for the people could endure. The question was whether we could live up to the promise.

The answer, after about 700,000 deaths, was yes. We as a nation decided to stick by the principle. We believed enough in the words of July 4, 1776 to make them real. Or at least to pledge to keep trying to make them real.

Ever since then, we have struggled in less violent conflicts with essentially the same question. What does it mean, that all are "born equal" and "endowed with certain unalienable rights"? We've also struggled, in a variety of ways, with the question of how those principles either should or shouldn't guide us in international affairs. Back to that one in the next column.

Point is, we're still living in the great shadow - or maybe I should say "in the bright light" - of those words. Of the ideas expressed in that document that's 250 years old this week.

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This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 12:03 PM.