Curiosity and What Equality Really Means
I&#x27;m hesitant to make this comment because this was a great article and this is somewhat tangential, but I hate to see history whitewashed and simplified so I&#x27;m going to make it anyway.<p>From the article:<p>&gt; [The idea that all lives are of equal worth] is a radical idea, one ultimately inscribed in our nation’s founding documents: we are all created equal and should be respected as such. I do not think it a mere coincidence that among the fifty-six founding fathers who signed the declaration of our independence was a physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush. He was a committed revolutionary and abolitionist precisely because of his belief in the principle.<p>Erm, no. It was not really some idealistic principle that motivated his views. From wikipedia:<p>&gt; Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), a Founding Father of the United States and a physician, proposed that being black was a hereditary skin disease, which he called &quot;negroidism&quot;, and that it could be cured. Rush believed non-whites were really white underneath but they were stricken with a non-contagious form of leprosy which darkened their skin color. Rush drew the conclusion that &quot;whites should not tyrannize over [blacks], for their disease should entitle them to a double portion of humanity. However, by the same token, whites should not intermarry with them, for this would tend to infect posterity with the &#x27;disorder&#x27;... attempts must be made to cure the disease&quot;.