Please Note: To include as many attendees as possible, this event takes place at Unity Temple on the Plaza (707 W 47th St., Kansas City, MO).

As we near the end of a year-long celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday, author and political theorist Danielle Allen discusses the Declaration of Independence and perhaps the most important 35 words in American political history:

“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.”

Often cited as the epitome of American ideals, it is rife with contradictions. How can a collection of slaveholding men claim that ALL men are created equal? And is it just men? And what is the “pursuit” of happiness?

In this 250 & Counting series keynote address, Allen discusses her understanding of the founding document and explains that the Declaration of Independence makes it clear that equality and liberty are the “twinned foundations of democracy.”

This program is a Bradbury Speaker Series event, established in honor of retired Library Director Daniel J. Bradbury with the support of the Friends of the Kansas City Public Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.