“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal . . .” states the founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence.

Apparently some of our founders did not completely subscribe to this view. Thomas Jefferson, considered the primary author of the Declaration, owned slaves. So did others who signed the document.

America’s Civil War president, Abraham Lincoln, once responded to the question: Why did America’s founders not fulfill this principle of equality?

Lincoln is reported to have replied: “Ah, it’s like Jesus’ words. ‘Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.’ It is not that Jesus thought we were perfect or are perfect but that this is really a road on which we are to progress toward perfection.”

We might advance beyond our current political paralysis if we swapped political sound bytes for reasoning together, since, indeed, none of us has yet reached perfection.