We may be born equal but does it stay that way?

CPT Russell Pitre — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:20:27 -0400

I think William A. Henry III said it best when he said "The fact is that some people are better than others - smarter, harder working, more learned, more productive, harder to replace". I don't care to be politically correct and either should you. This wild notion that everyone is equally important is both wildly dangerous and a lie.

Some people are better than others. That is not an attack on their value or is it saying that one is worthless. But we need to stop this madness thinking that all are as important as one another. It is not true. Some are more learned. We call them doctors. I will tell you that he is far more important than I should a medical emergency occur. While I was deployed our aviators were much more important to the overall success of missions than most. That DFAC worker was not the push at the decisive point of the battle that lead to the overall success of the mission. That A-10 pilot was!

We are reduced to this false sense of equality by society. We are indeed born equal. But we all will have varying results as to our success and ability. We have had such great leaders of the past such as President Washington and Lincoln. They were far more important than anyone else at the time. But in our time we don’t want to offend that brand new soldier that has yet to develop into a productive member of a team so we say he is as important to the team as that beard clad SF soldier performing surgical strikes against ISIS.

I realize. There are far better men/women than I. I read their books and listen to their lectures. These men and women are hard to replace. There will not be another Steve Jobs or Frederick Taylor. Nor will there be another Margaret Thatcher or Martin Luther King Jr. The sooner we can admit this the better we will be as a society.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 7 at 2016 9:23 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:23:13 -0400

We are all equal. We have the same inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the PUTSUIT of happiness. Meaning if you want it you have to do something. That's where equal ends.

Response by 1LT Aaron Barr made Sep 7 at 2016 9:43 AM

1LT Aaron Barr — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:43:31 -0400

Equality is of natural rights. Legal rights should reflect this. Liberals love to lecture conservatives about how we cannot legislate morality. The problem is that they fail to recognize that they cannot legislate true equality of outcomes because they cannot legislate ability, ambition, common sense, determination, entrepreneurship, frugality, intelligence, inventiveness, luck, perseverance, responsibility, skill, talent, work ethic or any of the other myriad individual traits that are what really determine success. The only thing they can do is promise to rob those who possess these traits to buy the votes of those who don’t.

Response by SPC James Harsh made Sep 7 at 2016 9:47 AM

SPC James Harsh — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:47:59 -0400

Historically while societies ebb & flow there is always someone somewhere working on a breakthrough, we can only hope that the likes of those people still exist in today's day & age.

Response by SrA Edward Vong made Sep 7 at 2016 10:04 AM

SrA Edward Vong — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:04:53 -0400

Arguably we are only equal in terms of worth and equal before the law.

But all aside, I do believe we are all equal.

Response by SSG Michael Hartsfield made Sep 7 at 2016 10:34 AM

SSG Michael Hartsfield — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:34:50 -0400

Yes we are all equal BUT to speak to the point you made about the DFAC worker vs the AC-10 pilot, if that DFAC did not do the job he/she was trained to do and failed to follow the standards of sanitation, food preparation, or food storage, then that AC-10 pilot along with everyone else would be non mission capable due to food poisoning. Yes, that AC-10 pilot is a better trained service member with more education BUT everyone on the battlefield has a purpose and contributes to the fight in their own way. One of the 5 SOF Truths is "Most special operations require non-SOF support" which are a lot of your "soft-skill" MOSs (DFAC, Admin, Supply, Maintenance, and Transportation, to name a few). Just because they don't show kinetic effects doesn't mean that you don't need them.

Also, to say that we shouldn't aspire to be LIKE Steve Jobs or LIKE MLK or Margaret Thatcher or any other historical great undercuts what it is to be an American, IMHO. We have always look to those greater than ourselves as the standard to meet and or surpass because, to coin a phrase, "No one remembers who got a silver medal in the Olympics." We on RP all know who Audie Murphy, Gen. George Patton, SGT Morales, Gen. Omar Bradley, Gen. "Chesty" Puller, Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon are and were and we look to those people as THE standard, not A standard, of what we should model ourselves after.

In my humble opinion, we all have the capacity for greatness. What we should stop doing is believing that we are special because we are famous instead of being famous because we are special. The historical greats paved the way for us. It's on us all to build on that foundation and make it better.

Response by LTC Thomas Tennant made Sep 7 at 2016 10:35 AM

LTC Thomas Tennant — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:35:24 -0400

Equality gets to be an overused term. Elitists use it to hid their intentions while others look at life differently. Life is about opportunities and how you choose to use them. So life is also about choice...and choice is also the foundation of character. So think about it. You can be the smartest person in the room with the biggest set of degrees and produced great things in record time (etc. etc.) but if your character is suspect are you more worthy than the next guy? Look a George Soros...a billionaire who rigged markets, illegally messes with American politics, and as a young Jewish boy help the Nazis round up Jews while stealing those same Jews blind.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 7 at 2016 10:35 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:35:44 -0400

"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

- George Orwell

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 7 at 2016 10:36 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:36:46 -0400

Equal rights, but definitely not equal abilities.

Response by SPC Kevin Ford made Sep 7 at 2016 11:04 AM

SPC Kevin Ford — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 11:04:12 -0400

In the context of the quote, certainly some people contribute to society more than others. It is also true that we are not born in equal situations and the situation that we are born into has a huge impact on our likelihood to become one of those more valuable people. From an employer's perspective (As above) it is perfectly fair to seek out those people who, for whatever reason, become more productive and valuable.

From society's perspective it is useful to ask ourselves how best to change the underlying dynamic to make people who are more likely to be less productive, into people who are more likely to be more productive citizens. The alternative is we as a society end up paying for them. That right there underlines the importance of things like public education. But that's only a small part of the picture because so much of factors that contribute to success in school happen outside of the school.

Absolutely some adults end up more productive and valuable than others. What we struggle with as a society is the question of how to continue to improve and change the dynamic so more and more of the next generations end up in that group. We also have to recognize that all the jobs that make society work are important. Those aviators you mentioned are just riflemen without working aircraft that are fueled, armed and know where to go with the entire support structure that makes that happen.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 7 at 2016 11:27 AM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 11:27:32 -0400

It is all about equal opportunity NOT equal outcome.

Response by SN Greg Wright made Sep 7 at 2016 11:30 AM

SN Greg Wright — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 11:30:17 -0400

Ah, man, you had me right up until you said Steve Jobs was anything other than the asshole and corporate thug that he was.

Response by SGT Dave Tracy made Sep 7 at 2016 12:13 PM

SGT Dave Tracy — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 12:13:37 -0400

As the quote says, some people are smarter; more driven or harder workers; others simply have better dumb luck (I see you with that lottery ticket!), etc.. That's just how is it. Because of these things, some folks simply will excel in life--or certain aspect of life--while others do not.

What we should expect are equal (should add "legal") opportunities for people to utilize whatever they have going for themselves; and this society is generally pretty good about that. Not perfect, and we occasionally need to address our shortfalls, but pretty good. What we must never do though is demand equal outcomes.

Response by PO3 Sandra Gomke made Sep 7 at 2016 12:22 PM

PO3 Sandra Gomke — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 12:22:47 -0400

I have always had a problem with "everyone getting a ribbon for trying". Like candy, competition is healthy in small doses. Isn't competition better than complacency? Our ability to improve and move forward is what makes things happen. Inventing, learning, protecting, nurturing are some of the actions that cannot happen when a person is complacent. No, we are not equal. From the minute we are conceived, we are all different. How we differ depends on the degree of complacency. How satisfied we are with the way things are and whether or not we are willing to do anything about it. If you're happy with your station in life and don't want to change it, kudos to you. But if you're not happy and don't want to do anything to change it (and there is always a way to change it), then you're being complacent and your life will never improve. No matter what gender, race, religion or military branch we belong to, that is ultimately what separates us all. IMHO

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Sep 7 at 2016 12:24 PM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 12:24:28 -0400

This is a very well written post and I agree with the message. Personally I have said this many times, just not quite so eloquently. But simply put, Equal Opportunity does not mean Equal Results.

The term equality is completely lost on people in favor of putting feelings before logic.

For instance, in regards to race, I've heard people complain about the lack of diversity in all positions across the Country. The fact of the matter is that the populations are not a 50/50 split. So even if you started distributing jobs in a 50/50 manner, eventually you'll run out of non-white workers.

The same thing can be said about sex. I hear plenty of arguments that men and women aren't equal in the workplace because there are more male CEOs than female CEOs. Instead of encouraging women to grow and develop their own companies, people would rather just fire the male CEOs and appoint female CEOs for "equality". But in reality, that's not really equality.

We may all be born equal, but it is the efforts and struggles that we put forth that separate us. Some people go above and beyond while others are looking for whatever partial credit they can get.

Response by SCPO Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 7 at 2016 1:31 PM

SCPO Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 13:31:53 -0400

Some prominent person also said something to the effect that while we are all born equal, beyond that, we only have equal opportunities. No one has a right to have everything just handed to them on a silver platter. Well, it was something like that, anyway.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Sep 7 at 2016 1:37 PM

Capt Seid Waddell — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 13:37:59 -0400

Response by 1SG William T. Wade III made Sep 7 at 2016 2:07 PM

1SG William T. Wade III — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 14:07:14 -0400

This is a totally different way at looking at things than most people would have thought from the topic. I like it. What you decide to do with your abilities does greatly effect your importance to society. It doesnt matter if you are born a natural prodigy. If you are lazy, you remain....average, and therefore, less important to the rest of society. Usually, becoming relevant, is the result of years of hard work.

Response by 1SG Al Brown made Sep 7 at 2016 6:47 PM

1SG Al Brown — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 18:47:53 -0400

You are as equal in all things as you want to be. No more. no less. You are the only person who knows what the standard is. Everything else is someone trying to manipulate others to make them more "equal". How's that for an oxymoron.

Response by SFC George Smith made Sep 7 at 2016 6:55 PM

SFC George Smith — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 18:55:49 -0400

this is one that has proved it self many times...

Response by LTC David Brown made Sep 7 at 2016 8:32 PM

LTC David Brown — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 20:32:46 -0400

i agree with the article to an extent. The smartest best commander can't make it work with out good Sargents. The greatest restaurant won't last long serving food on dirty dishes. Here is one more thought. http://www.axpow.org/stories-whopacksyourparachute.htm

Stories - Who Packs Your Parachute?

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane as destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

Response by Capt Chris McVeigh made Sep 8 at 2016 2:09 AM

Capt Chris McVeigh — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 02:09:01 -0400

People are born with neither equal genetics nor equal opportunity. Survival of fittest/evolution immediately disproves any notion of genetic equality. As to equal opportunity, if you are born with greater means at your disposal or great opportunities chance to occur in your life, you end up with opportunities others didn't have open to them.

Someone else mentioned equal rights, I'm all for that one.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 8 at 2016 8:29 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 20:29:10 -0400

I've heard several people mention "equal opportunities, not equal outcomes." To a point, I agree with that sentiment. If person A and person B both start out at zero, then person A puts out 100 and person B puts out 85, and as a result person A ends up sitting at 100 while person B sits at 85, I have no issue with that.

One problem I have is when person A starts out at zero, but person B starts out either at -15 (this is how things were before affirmative action, when blacks had to "work twice as hard for half the reward," as my mother used to always tell me) and either puts forth 100 to end up at 85 or has to put forth 115 to end up at 100.

The other problem I have is with the concept of affirmative action, person A starts at zero and person B starts at 15, so when person A puts forth 100 and sits at 100, person B can either get there by only putting forth 85, or can put forth that same 100 as person A and end up at 115.

So the question is: do *ALL* Americans start out at zero? If not, what can we do to remedy that situation?

Response by SMSgt Matthew Hoyer made Sep 8 at 2016 11:25 PM

SMSgt Matthew Hoyer — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 23:25:45 -0400

Well yeah, but equal and alike are not the same thing. Henry's definition here, or rather the example, misuses the idea of the word better. When we talk about people being no better or worse than another, we are talking about ethics, not function or production. Of course people have differing abilities, of course people have differing levels of motivation. But just because you see a small amount of motivation, commitment or ability doesn't mean that's the cap. It's a good quote, to be sure, but the broad application of it causes me some concern. They will use the words, but not the spirit that they should be meant in, if not actually meant in it.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Sep 9 at 2016 12:20 AM

CPT Jack Durish — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 00:20:14 -0400

I think it's time for some honesty. We should be equal in the eyes of the law. Beyond that there is no equality. There shouldn't be. Our survival as a species depends on inequality. Survival of a family, a community, a state or a nation requires far too many skills and far too much knowledge and talents than can be contained in any one person or any group of equal persons. Now let's stop tolerating differences and start celebrating them