Celebrate the Constitution

Yesterday was Constitution Day. How did you celebrate? Did you even
know?

On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention, meeting in
Philadelphia for four months, agreed on the final draft of this special,
inspired document and submitted to the several states for ratification.
It was ratified June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire approved it as the
ninth state. Congress, acting under the Articles of Confederation,
declared the Constitution the law of the land March 4, 1789.

By general assent and resolution of the Congress, Sept. 17 has been
designated as Constitution Day ever since — designated, but not
necessarily acknowledged or observed.

We celebrate many holidays in America today — Independence Day,
presidential birthdays, Veterans Day, Memorial Day. Yet, no one even
acknowledges Constitution Day anymore. That’s tragic.

America has forgotten the two concepts that made her special as a
nation — two unique factors that set her apart from the world from the
start.

First, the Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution that strictly
limited the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans.
The idea that Washington had some role in education, redistribution of
wealth, setting minimum wage requirements, nationalizing millions of
acres of land, taxing income and subsidizing government-approved artists
would have been anathema to the men who fought so valiantly for freedom
against an over-reaching foreign tyranny.

Secondly, the framers of that Constitution spoke eloquently about the
fact that only a moral people — a nation of Godly people with common
spiritual and social values — were capable of self-government. They
could not have envisioned the depths of depravity, licentiousness and
vice to which our society has fallen — yet they warned about it.

Our current debates about social and government policy seem
disconnected from these two critical foundations of the American
republic. Politicians will never solve the problems facing the country
without acknowledging these two essential precepts. In fact, I’ll go
further. Politicians will never solve our problems. Period. The more
government tries to do, the worse things get.

And that’s the beauty of the Constitution. It strictly limits what
government can do. The trouble is that Americans have forgotten this.
They’ve been dumbed down by government schools and a government-media
complex to believe that Uncle Sam is there to solve all their problems
— from how much they get paid to what they spend on health care to how
they should raise their own children.

We honor the flag in America, but not the Constitution. The flag is a
mere symbol. The Constitution is the real thing. We should revere it,
and, more importantly, live under it.

While the Constitution is every bit as symbolic as the flag, it is
literally a guidepost to maintaining — or now, perhaps, to recovering
— America’s freedom. But it can only serve that function if we as a
nation abide by it, pay heed to it, live by its code and its spirit.

Which symbol is really worth dying for? The flag is not my pick.
After all, it is just a symbol. Symbols, of course, are important. But
the Constitution is more. It is both symbol and substance. And its
substance is being desecrated by some of those so piously concerned
about the symbolic desecration of the flag.

A Portrait of America survey found that less than half of American
adults would vote for the Constitution if it were on the ballot today.
To that, I say, thank God there is no requirement for a referendum on
the Constitution. A more recent poll showed close to half of Americans
don’t believe in the basic First Amendment guarantees of freedom of
speech, assembly, religion and the press.

So there you see it. The Constitution is being desecrated before our
eyes. Here in one document are the guiding principles of our nation
succinctly and clearly stated. The Constitution, coupled with the
Declaration of Independence, represents more of a national creed than a
simple founding document for the nation.

But skeptics are winning the day. Not even the Constitution holds us
together as a people any longer. Maybe, instead of reciting the Pledge
of Allegiance to the flag in school everyday, that time could be better
spent reading the Constitution.

And maybe that would be the best way to celebrate Constitution Day.

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The U.S. Constitution on the Internet