Last week was Constitution Week, a commemoration of America’s historical document, one that laid the groundwork for this country and its democracy.
The celebration, which happens annually during the week of Sept. 17-23, was started by the Daughters of the American Revolution more than six decades ago.
The Richard Clinton DAR chapter, as it has done for several years now, rang bells on the steps of the downtown courthouse last Wednesday and encouraged churches, schools and individuals to ring bells as well. The aim of the annual effort is to emphasize citizens’ responsibilities for protecting and defending the Constitution, preserving it for posterity, as well as touting its vital role in maintaining liberties, freedoms and inalienable rights.
For 238 years, America’s Constitution has guided our growth, shaped our progress, and defined us as a nation of sacred laws and fundamental values. When our democracy is tested, we draw strength from the Constitution to see us through. When we look ahead in our uniquely American way — restless, bold, and optimistic — our Constitution is the bedrock we build upon to make our nation more equal, more just, and more prosperous for all our people.
The Constitution is the foundation by which this country’s government, and the rights of its populous, were founded.
Today, we fear, not enough people understand the Constitution and what it means to them, either individually or collectively. And that lack of understanding, coupled with a strongly divided electorate, has people numbed to the realities happening right before our eyes.
Our democracy seems in peril these days, testing the strength of our Constitution and the mettle of all of us who have been charged with protecting it.
Understanding what the Constitution says, and why, helps us better protect it. And, make no mistake, we must protect it.
That’s particularly true as it pertains to things such as the First Amendment, which is being sorely tested. In just a week’s time, a comedian, who has made fun of politicians of every stripe, was pulled from the air because he criticized the Trump administration, and, Pentagon officials are now saying they will require credentialed journalists to sign a pledge refraining from reporting information not authorized for release, including unclassified information. Unfortunately, this is two of a growing list of examples.
Both are dangerous precedents, putting us on a slippery slope that, while not yet in our backyards, could move there quickly. Today it’s a comedian and journalists; tomorrow it could be your political party or your faith. None of it upholds the tenets our founding fathers worked — and fought — so hard to develop.
The United States won its independence from Great Britain in 1783, and having operated under the Articles of Confederation since then, came together, as the Constitution’s preamble says, “in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do order and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.”
According to the Daughters of the American Revolution, the aims of Constitution Week are to emphasize citizens’ responsibilities for protecting and defending the Constitution; inform people that the Constitution is the basis for America’s great heritage and the foundation for our way of life; and encourage the study of the historical events which led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787.
Just as important as it is to look back and appreciate those who paved the way, American democracy requires our constant care, vigilance and full participation. In other words, we have to ensure its existence when we agree with it and when we stand in stark opposition to it. What protects one protects all. And that is what the U.S. Constitution has always done.