This is America, but somehow over the years the Puritan ethic has been cast aside as the ideal and replaced with a "me-first" attitude, or an entitlement mindset demonstrated by so many, and in general, selfishness in all of its many manifestations is considered by some to be sort of America redefined. While certainly there is something to be said about "looking out for No. 1", but to do so, in a manner that undercuts, cheats, or excludes others, because of your unseemly grab for wealth, power, or its equivalencies is not the proper American way. In America, there are way too many people that have selected a finish line that they are aiming for, without ever taking into careful consideration the consequences for others when or how they get there.
All of us are indeed created equally by their Creator, which as defined does not mean that they are equal in talents, nor equal in circumstances, nor equal in mind, but equal in that each has the unalienable rights of free will, and a free conscience, so as to freely choose or not choose to find their way back to the First Source. Those that are actually successfully in reuniting their spiritual souls with God, are eternally grateful for having done so, but like a great ship at harbor, this ship will not sail again, till all, that is, everyone, without exception, is aboard. That is why great souls that have no karma to work off, that have no rebellion inside of them, that have passed all tests given to them, come back to this earthly plane again and again, so as to lead by example as well as influence those lost sheep to return to the one fold that all originated, without exception, from.
God is our creator, and can our creator ever leave his creation behind? He cannot. He will not. He does not. Man, so often in his assumed wisdom, thinks he knows everything, but draw back the curtain all of the way, pour forth the illuminating scintillating light that is God, and man's wisdom shrivels up to an embarrassment of hubris. There is one God, there is one river, there is one people, and one cannot ever be complete without all joined in together.
Those that lend a helping hand, those that sacrifice for the greater good, those that make the world a better place for having been here, are those that build the very steps that will lead us back to the throne of God. It is a process, it does not happen overnight, there are starts and stops, there are mistakes and misdirection, but the overarching theme, the bend of justice, will ultimately become the straight and very narrow path back to God.
When the school bus stops so as to let the children out for a lecture at a park, or a day at the museum, or other activities, each student has been counted and identified, and that bus will never leave, until each student has been re-counted and identified, not once, but at least twice so that none will be left behind. We are God's children, some are far astray, some are asleep, some are actively doing bad things, but then again there are those that are good, that care, that love, and that are tireless in pursuing the lost sheep on behalf of God.
It may take time, but what is time to God, for none will be left behind, no, not one.