The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence begins with the following statement: 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... After writing the Declaration of Independence, it took our nation almost ninety years to recognize that the Right of Liberty expressed by our Founding Fathers was a Right of all men, not just the wealthy or the white. If what was written in 1776 was true at that time, then it had to be true throughout all time. For Black Americans and other minorities, it took almost two hundred years after the writing of the Declaration of Independence and one hundred years after the U.S. Constitution granted their freedom for their Civil Rights to be codified into law. In 1964, a Civil Rights Law was passed making it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Familial status, age and disability were other protected classes added to this list through the passage of other Civil Rights laws throughout the years. Throughout our history we seem to eventually figure it out. Every person has the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and no rights of another can ever trump these Rights. But getting it correct has been difficult and has come at great cost. It took a Civil War, a Suffrage Movement, and a Civil Rights Movement to awaken our leadership and the people of our nation to the injustice of the day. Why must we insist on punishing ourselves with such injustice for generations, only to be finally cured at such horrific cost? But we're doing it to ourselves again. Today, as a nation, we are facing another great injustice. For fifty years, tens of millions have suffered severely under this injustice. For fifty years, the rights of one individual have trampled the Unalienable Rights of another. For fifty years, those who have spoken out against this injustice have themselves been marginalized and ignored. This great injustice is the shame of our nation. THE TIME HAS COME TO CHANGE THE SHAME.