Dear Mr. Jefferson: A Letter From the Smallest American

Dear Mr. Jefferson,

Two hundred and fifty years ago, you wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Did you know that someday people would debate whether someone like me—the smallest American—is included in this promise? I cannot yet speak for myself. I cannot protest, vote, or plead my case. But if all men are created equal, then surely equality should include the vulnerable, the defenseless, and the smallest among us. And so, Mr. Jefferson, I write to you today with a question that weighs heavily on my tiny heart: If all men are created equal, then why do so many deny that someone like me should be included in the promise of this principle? Does “all men” include me?

In the name of personal decisions, convenience, and circumstance, I hear people say, “My body, my choice.” I ask you: What happens to a society when one person’s freedom is believed to outweigh another person’s right to exist? I am not my mother’s body. I am my own body. I have my own heartbeat, my own gifts, my own life, my own future. My DNA is my own; it is unlike that of any person who has ever lived or ever will live. I am not an appendage. I am not an organ.

Do they know that my heart began beating just days after my life began—before my mother even knew I was there? Do they know that my brain was already sending its first signals as the foundation for every thought, idea, dream, and memory I would one day have? Do they know that my tiny fingers and toes appeared long before my mother would hold me in her arms?

From the moment I came into existence, I was a distinct human life, endowed by my Creator with the same unalienable Rights as any other person: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Like you—and every other American—I was created, and according to your Declaration, “created equal.” I am greatly comforted by this word that you chose: created. You did not suggest that equality is something to be earned through age, strength, status, power, independence, or accomplishment. Rather, you boldly proclaimed that the promise of equality is inherent to every person from the very beginning—from creation.

Mr. Jefferson, you know well that, throughout history, America has failed to remember this truth and that countless people have claimed ownership over other human beings to advance their own self-interest. Slaves were treated as property rather than people—their value determined by the desires and decisions of their masters rather than by their humanity. Yet the promise of your Declaration was that no human being belongs to another—all people are “created equal” and that these “unalienable Rights” do not come from size, strength, age, ability or disability, or whether they were planned for or wanted. They come from being human.

So, if I am a human being (and science says that I am), then I cannot be the property of someone else. I cannot be reduced to a choice made for convenience. My worth cannot be measured by whether I am wanted or not. Like every person who has ever lived, I possess my own dignity, my own identity, and my own right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. I am not a possession. I am a person.

I wonder what would happen if people considered what I and thousands of others like me might someday contribute to this world. Perhaps I will educate children or fight for their rights in a court of law. Perhaps I will find a cure for cancer or invent a revolutionary product or technology. Perhaps I will become the President of the United States and leave a lasting mark on our nation, just as you did over two hundred years ago. No one knows the answer, but this uncertainty does not diminish my humanity. Every person who ever made history and changed the world began exactly as I am now: tiny, dependent, and full of promise.

Mr. Jefferson, did you know that your profound words would one day be the rallying cry for abolitionists and suffragists? Did you know that they would inspire generations of Americans to stand up for the voiceless and the oppressed? Did you know that they would challenge each generation to broaden their understanding of human dignity and equality? I, too, am one of those inspired by your words, and so I ask once more: If all men are created equal, then does “all” include me?

With enduring hope,

The Smallest American