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Freedom is unfinished if justice is unequal.
Today, on the ninth day of honoring the freedoms our Founding Fathers laid down their lives for, we shine a light on a principle that tested — and still tests — the soul of our nation: the right to equality under the law.

Few signers embodied this fight quite like Benjamin Rush — a doctor, educator, and one of the Revolution’s most passionate believers that liberty must be for everyone, or it is liberty for no one at all.

The Father of American Psychiatry — and a Revolutionary

Benjamin Rush wasn’t just a political figure — he was a practicing physician, a signer of the Declaration, and one of America’s first public health reformers. He treated the poor when others wouldn’t. He believed in the power of science and faith working together.

But Rush was also a fierce critic of slavery — in an age when many who spoke of freedom failed to extend it to every human being. He joined the first American abolition society and argued that true freedom must break the chains that bound millions in bondage.

Equality: A Radical Idea

In 1776, equality was a radical notion. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed, “All men are created equal.” But many signers owned slaves, and the contradiction haunted America from its birth.

Rush refused to let that contradiction stand unchallenged. He wrote pamphlets calling for emancipation. He treated Black patients with the same dignity he offered his wealthy neighbors. He believed the words on that parchment demanded action — not just for some, but for all.

He saw that justice under the law was the glue that would bind the promise of freedom to every citizen, no matter their wealth, color, or status.

A Right That Still Calls Us Higher

Today, equality under the law is a right we still wrestle to fully live up to. Courts, communities, and everyday people all play a role in pushing our nation closer to the promise Rush believed in — that every person is equal in worth and protected equally by the law.

When corruption, prejudice, or double standards creep in, it’s the job of everyday citizens — just like Rush — to call it out and push back.

What Benjamin Rush Would Tell Us Now

Rush would remind us that equality is not a box we check — it’s a fight we keep fighting. It means speaking up when we see injustice — big or small — in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and government.

It means defending the idea that every child deserves the same shot at a good life, that courts must judge actions not skin, and that the measure of freedom is not what we say on paper but what we practice in life.

A Call for Today

This Independence Day, remember Benjamin Rush — the doctor who believed medicine could heal bodies, but justice could heal a nation.

Ask yourself: Where can I be like Rush?
Where can I stand up for those pushed to the margins? Where can I speak up when the promise of equality falls short?

The freedom to be treated equally under the law was paid for in blood and ink by people like Rush. Keeping that freedom alive is up to us.

Tomorrow, for our final day — Day 10 — we’ll return to the father of our country, George Washington, and the timeless right to shape the future for generations yet to come.

To our freedom,

Matt

P.S. Remember Psalm 146:3-5