Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities, Progress for All - A Prerequisite

     I would like our country to be the kind of place where any citizen can access the resources they need to develop their potential if they are willing to work hard at it. This means there would be equal access to education up through a 2 year technical college program. Financial contributions to education after they reach 18 would not be based on parent's income, but on their own resources if they are living independently of their parents. Parents can no longer afford P 50,000 a month costs for tuition, room and board for each child who wants to go to college. Parents have negative home equity, they've lost 1/2 their retirement savings, and have parents of their own in similar circumstances to worry about.
     People should not be allowed to inherit vast sums of money that provide them lifetimes of leisure. Every member of society should contribute the effort required to support themselves and those unable to support themselves due to sickness or deficient physical or mental capabilities. We should resume inheritance taxes that do not allow this tier of society to form, instead providing incentives for the wealthy to do good works with their wealth and only pave the way for their families and friends to receive the best possible care in the event they are legitimately disabled. In short, people who are able to work for the good of society ought not be allowed to avoid this obligation by birthright.
     Obviously people should not be restricted from access to jobs or public goods by virtue of race, creed, sexual orientation or any other factor that is unrelated to their performance as a member of the work force or good citizenship. No reverse discrimination either. 
     Much of what we need people to provide to their fellow citizens they will provide willingly, but if this is not the case, we must ask that people contribute proportional to their ability to contribute.
     To sum things up. A 'Right' is a prerequisite to a peaceful societal existence that cannot be denied to any member of the society due to any factor whatsoever; be it gender, age, class, race, nationality, religious or political affiliation, etc., etc..
     A 'Right' is not dissimilar to 'Freedom'; freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of access to education, information, or political affiliation; freedom to practice any religion that one so chooses; and so on and so forth.
      It is not akin by any interpretation to a 'privilege', as a privilege is accorded to members of the society that meet certain criteria or conditions; thus, it is class-specific.

     'Equal', on the other hand, needs no further interpretation, as it is what it is 'equal' = what one is, so is the other; like for like.
     "Equal rights", therefore, means 'the freedom to engage in any and/or all forms of social, cultural, political, and religious activities by any and every member of the society', the limit of which shall not be restricted in any form or any manner.
      This, however, must conform to societal norms and the judicial codes, whose wide interpretations I dare not trespass in just the few words I can afford here.