Introduction

One of my responsibilities as Director of Communications for Martin Luther Home Society, an ELCA-affiliated social service agency providing services to people with developmental disabilities, was to serve as editor of the quarterly magazine, The News. This editorial, written on Dec. 22, 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, appeared in the first issue of 2002.

Column

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

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 the 225 years that have passed since then, our country has grown to understand that by “all men” we mean “all people,” no matter the color of their skin, no matter their gender, no matter their ability.

We have seen, in our own lifetimes, the great strides our culture has taken in supporting the rights of all people. We no longer segregate our public facilities; we no longer expect that women can only do well what can done at home; we no longer cloister people with disabilities behind the doors of secured institutions.

While we have taken these great strides, we have not yet achieved the ideals Jefferson held before the world. Our Creator has endowed us with “unalienable Rights,” yet we still have not torn down fully the barriers that stand between each individual and his or her full enjoyment of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

As Christians, we would identify the full enjoyment of those rights with the resurrected life. In heaven, life will no longer be limited by death, liberty will no longer be impeded by oppression and undermined by license, and the pursuit of happiness will no longer be bent by sin.

But just because we will enjoy the fullness of the “unalienable Rights” given by God only after the resurrection, does not mean that we cannot enjoy a foretaste of those rights here and now. It does not mean that we who support the ministry of Martin Luther Homes should cease to pray for, to advocate for and to support people with disabilities as they embrace “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The attacks of Sept. 11 and the current war against terrorism remind us of the threats that seek to undermine the rights God has given us. They remind us of our priorities in response to those threats and they shed light on the order in which Jefferson listed those rights we defend. First is “Life.” If we are not reasonably secure from the threat of death, then we cannot even begin to enjoy the “blessings of liberty” our Constitution proclaims as a primary goal of our country’s life, much less work out how we seek to pursue happiness in a land of life and liberty.

Some people question whether our country will lose sight of its commitments to support people with disabilities as we focus more keenly upon the war against terrorists. It is true, most likely, that the war and the great gaps in our homeland’s security the attacks revealed to us will occupy the greatest measure of our nation’s attention in the coming months and years. But Jefferson’s insight that “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” are the rights of all means that they are the rights of people with disabilities as well.

So when those rights are under attack, the responses we make to those attacks—and the resources we commit to those responses—are the responses and the resources we deploy for the sake of all people, including people with disabilities. This is the basic task of government. Our task, as supporters and staff of Martin Luther Homes, is to redouble our efforts to offer the best quality services and supports to people with disabilities and other special needs. Then they can participate in our country’s life and work out with us what it means to be created equal in God’s eyes and to be endowed by God with the rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”