Saturday, September 17, 2011
Birthday of the U.S. Constitution
Happy (224th) Constitution Day!
Constitution Day, formally known as Citizenship Day, is the holiday that marks the formal adoption of the the U.S. Constitution.and recognizes those who have become citizens. With a political climate hostile to both constitutional principles and new citizens, it’s worth a moment to reflect on what we should be celebrating.
The Constitution is more than a governing document. It’s an expression of cultural and political values and ideals that help define what it means to be an American. Taken out of the vacuum of political ideology, the Constitution embraces the belief that individuals should have a check, and a remedy, against the abuse of police power, that all persons have a unique and equally worthy humanity that the law should respect and that the essential function of the government is to provide for the common good.
It established three co-equal branches of government to divide power and force compromise in order to govern. It allows for a balance between accountability to the electorate and the flexibility necessary to govern and disperses influence, albeit imperfectly, across a nation vast in geography and differing opinions.
As good as it is, the Constitution is not perfect. Indeed, until amended it failed to recognize the humanity of African-Americans, women, and anyone not a white male property owner. It still does not explicitly provide for a recognition of women as equal rights holders as men and is vague enough to pluck out corporate personhood from its meaning.
Yes, it remains a work in progress. But in the meantime let’s celebrate the fact that it guarantees citizens full due process and equal protection under the law, free speech, privacy and liberty rights and remains, to this day, a model of how one of the greatest political experiments in mankind’s history got it mostly right.
This is the "birthday" of our marvelous Constitution of the United States of America! Let us give thanks for it!
There have been countless forms of government throughout the history of mankind. But the Constitution has proved to be far superior to any other charter of human government in promoting what the Declaration of Independence labeled as our "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
It was almost miraculous that on this date Sept. 17 in the year 1787, an assembly of men in Philadelphia managed to come to agreement on the Constitution, which the states would later ratify.
The Constitution is the basis of the liberty and justice that we enjoy in the United States. It is a brilliant balance of powers -- and restrictions on power -- and it promotes the best interests of our free people in this blessed nation.
Despite our individual imperfections and despite occasional challenges, violations and stresses in war and peace throughout centuries, the Constitution has survived.
Is it perfect?
Times change. Challenges vary. But among the Constitution's virtues is the orderly, cautious process that it provides to amend it, if we feel a need to do so. The prescribed process prevents us from falling victim to sudden passions and partisan whims, which might otherwise allow us to undermine our cherished freedoms in pursuit of an unwise or short-term goal.
We, the people, by our Constitution, have delegated specific powers to the federal government -- with the 10th Amendment reserving all others to the states or the people. That important provision has helped us to preserve liberties that most people outside the United States do not enjoy.
What if we didn't have the Constitution? Can you imagine what we might do, today, if we "started from scratch," to attempt to write a new Constitution?
Do you believe we could do as well as the men who gathered at the Constitutional Convention in 1787? We doubt it!
But if you're not sure, just sit down and try to write the kind of Constitution you think might be better. Could you devise surer guarantees of personal freedom? Could you provide better means for our nation to exercise needed governmental power -- but not too much power?
Whatever the Constitution's imperfections may be, the real danger in government today is not that we will adhere "too closely" to it, but that we will not adhere to it as carefully and specifically as we should!
We should resolve, therefore, to defend and uphold the Constitution, to treasure it and honor it -- and to preserve it for ourselves and future generations.
Today, on the birthday of the Constitution, all of us Americans should be humbly grateful for that enduring document -- and for the "blessings of liberty" that it secures for us.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
On This Day.........
The original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the song that would become our national anthem, is among the most treasured artifacts in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Check out more of what happen on this day and check out the Smithsonian website, click link below:
http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/starflag.htm