Equality Vs Fairness.

     The world is an imperfect place. One if it's imperfections is the inequality of human beings. For a long time people were held to the station in life to which they were born. Moving up in the world just was not going to happen. It didn't matter if you had intelligence or the drive to work hard. Who, and what you were, was pretty much set from birth.  This was excepted, and no one really made too much of a stink over it. That is, until the birth of a county based on freedom.

    America is a great country. It has striven to give more freedoms and opportunities to it's people than any other country in history. With that said, we are not perfect. We have had racism and sexism and all the other "isms", just like everyone else. But it is our truly exceptional desire to be fair that has pushed us to always try to fix any problems that our citizens face in the hope that one day all Americans will live in a truly equal county. Affirmative Action was to put in place to help minorities who had been held down by institutional oppression be able to go to good schools, get good jobs, and therefor be able to move up in life. Sounds good, right? The Equal Pay Act was put in place to ensure that all people would be paid the same amount for the same work. Still good?  Now, there are laws to help those with mental or physical disabilities or religious or sexual orientation differences, so that they too will never have to compete on anything other than an entirely even playing field. Wow! That sounds like a real utopia! 

    Problem. As mentioned, the world is an imperfect place. And as cold and heartless as it sounds, that is often a good thing. Imperfection and inequality breeds struggle. It separates people who have natural abilities from those who do not. It then further separates those who have the personal motivation to work hard from those who are just plain lazy. It's been a very long time since there has been institutionalized inequality in America. Now the problem is forced equality. Governmental attempts to force the equalization of unequal people only lowers the standards for everyone. If a school or company must have a certain number of woman or blacks, will white men try their best? I doubt it. The deck has been stacked against them. They know they can't get in, so they don't even try. What if you are Asian? Will you be turned away because there are already "enough" Asians in the medical school you are applying too? If Affirmative Action has anything to say about it, you might want to ask yourself if being a doctor is really what you want to do. How about pay and advancement? There are laws that clearly make it illegal to pay woman less than men for the same job. So why are people always going on about women getting paid less? The truth is that woman work less hours and take more time off than men. Should a company promote the women and pay them the same wage even if this is the case? Shouldn't the time you put in, and your reliability count for something? It sounds like a dumb question. Right? But some people are so hung up on equality that they can't see the terrible unfairness that is right in front of their faces. 

    We, as Americans, should not strive for equality. It is an impossible goal and we should have learned by now that it is not even right for humanity. What we should work toward is achieving real fairness. Were all American's are given equality of opportunity, but are never guaranteed equality of results. To succeed or fail on ones own merits. In a fair America. Were all people are equally free. 

VOH