I surprise myself that, in my dotage, I have taken to writing letters to the editor of my home-town newspaper on a fairly regular basis.  They permit you to submit one every two months.  I pretty much do and they pretty much publish them.  It might be because I remember how to use semicolons as much as for what I have to say.  I don’t delude myself.  And I don’t follow up online to read the comments people make about my letters.  As I tell folks in my workout class when they notice me inserting my earplugs, I don’t like to be yelled out, either literally or figuratively.  Here is today’s letter.

WE ARE NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL.

We are not all created equal, and because of that, we all have different needs and different responsibilities. If we were, indeed, all equal, twelve-year-olds would drive cars; ninety-year-olds would have to go to work; parents would not have to support their children; handicapped people would not have preferred parking places reserved for them; dangerous people could stockpile dangerous weapons; women could lose their jobs if they took time off when giving birth. Just use your imaginations. The list is infinite. But we all need to have our needs met, and we all need to meet our responsibilities, according to our unique requirements and abilities. I think that is not rightly called equality. It should be called justice — as in liberty and justice for all.