Equal rights and opportunities have, pretty much, always been seen as things to strive for in the US. Whether it be in terms of status, wealth, success, etc. We have a distinct sense that things ought to be "fair." But what exactly do we mean by this?
A few years back, I learned about a study which showed that children, whose parents read to them, often did better in life than those whose parents did not. When I heard this, it made me happy. My parents had always read to me and my siblings when we were younger and it was cool thinking about the gift my parents had given me. I was really happy. Being able to give my future kids an advantage in life by sharing what I loved with them. I thought of reading all of my favorite stories to them, and hoped I'd be able to give them a love for reading and for learning.
But then I heard what researchers said should be done given this information. Rather than encouraging parents to read to their children, their solution was to discourage parents from reading to their children. Their argument was that it was unfair to all the children without parents. 
I was a bit stunned. Who wouldn't want kids to have their best possible chance? And wouldn't it be better to simply create reading programs of some kind for kids? What would motivate someone to keep kids down?
In this day, I think we often see things that aren't equal as being unjust. We think of inequality as somehow a moral fault on our part. We say it's not "fair" that some kids will have an advantage and others won't, and we think of the word "fair" as being synonymous with "equality." Obviously something that's unfair is wrong, right? And if being unfair is the same as being unequal, then there must be something wrong with the fact that not everyone is equal.
But is that what fair really means? A quick google search will show you that, no, it's not. As an adjective, fair can mean a number of things, but it is primarily defined as something being "in accordance with the rules or standards: legitimate." As an adverb it can be defined as doing something "without cheating or trying to achieve unjust advantage."
I think our association with equality and fairness comes from the fact that we often learn the term "fair" when we are young, while playing games. When playing a board game, everyone usually has the same pieces and the same opportunities. Everyone starts as equals. Depending on chance or skill, some will gain advantages as the game goes on, but so long as the rules apply to everyone, and no one breaks those rules, it's all well and good.
There is a problem though, when we try to take this form of equality into the rest of life. Obviously not everyone starts out equal. Not all babies are born after exactly nine months, not all people choose to go to college, some people have families earlier than others, some have ideas that end up making them wealthy, and others simply don't. No one looks identical, and not everyone lives in the exact same house. However, none of those things are bad or somehow unethical. Not everyone may be equal, but not everyone has to be. Even in games, one person wins and another loses and that's how it should be. When we're young, playing games, we don't want to play with that one kid who gets upset every time he loses.
And yet we put up with, and even encourage the exact same sentiments when they're under the banner of "social equality." We see being equal as just, and when things aren't equal we call them unfair. We act like the kid who accuses everyone of cheating when they don't win the board game. Our country has laws. As long as we obey them, we are playing by the rules of the game. Not everyone starts out the same, but that doesn't mean that someone is cheating.
To promote absolute equality, where everyone is the same, starting the same, and ending the same, is to create a race where all runners cross the finish line at the exact same time. No one wins, and the ending is unsatisfying. In the 2004 Pixar movie "The Incredibles" the evil Syndrome says these words, "When I'm old, and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be a superhero. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... no one will be." To say everyone wins, is to say everyone loses. Even in life, not everyone is capable of winning.
With that in mind, our solution shouldn't be to keep everyone down the people who have started with an advantage. It should be to build up those with handicaps so that they have a chance to move past their circumstances... to success.
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