Happy Birthday America! I know, I am a day late, but why not...it's our collective birthday! Being with friends and family makes it difficult to write extensively today, but what I want to mention today is the problem we face in this country when it comes to ignorance relating to our Constitution. As expected, over the weekend there were a lot of celebratory postings on social media, but one caught my attention.
Following a posting on Facebook about July 4, some folks erroneously celebrated the birth of the Constitution being July 4. Only this great holiday does not celebrate the Constitution, but our independence from England as laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Despite this fact, many postings seemed to think otherwise. I guess it's okay to celebrate America and mix the two up - but only to a certain extent. What did catch my attention was a thread that someone started about how we don't need the Supreme Court because anyone, including the person posting knows every plain word of the Constitution and we don't need a Court or "liberal teachers" to tell us what it says. They even go on to say that we all can glean exactly what the "Founders" intended just by reading the words in the document. And herein lies the problem!
America has gotten so far away from properly educating our electorate that some actually believe we don't need a Supreme Court! They are so screwed up in their thinking that they believe the Supreme Court was created by Congress and therefore, can be eliminated "for the greater good!" You can bet I cringed when reading this statement and all of the supporting statements that followed. For some folks to believe they alone can determine what the Constitution means just from reading it, seems to ignore why the Framers created the High Court in the first place (Article III of the very document they claim to be "experts" in). The same nonsense can be seen in postings from people supporting a spreading notion that States should be able to ignore anything that comes out of Washington, including Supreme Court rulings. Some true Americans right?
So let us all celebrate our great nation, and pledge to remind our fellow Americans that this nation was built on a foundation of law and that the "Framers" anticipated change and allowed the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution in ways that reflect such change. Think I am wrong? How many ways have our collective national lives changed since 1776? Yet how far from liberty are we getting when individuals claim they know the Constitution better than the Supreme Court, just by reading the document itself? We've got a lot of teaching and learning to do, and that's an American ideal, not a "liberal" or "conservative" one!
As James Madison once wrote; "What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?" Liberty and learning, gee, what a unique thought! Have a great week!
Following a posting on Facebook about July 4, some folks erroneously celebrated the birth of the Constitution being July 4. Only this great holiday does not celebrate the Constitution, but our independence from England as laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Despite this fact, many postings seemed to think otherwise. I guess it's okay to celebrate America and mix the two up - but only to a certain extent. What did catch my attention was a thread that someone started about how we don't need the Supreme Court because anyone, including the person posting knows every plain word of the Constitution and we don't need a Court or "liberal teachers" to tell us what it says. They even go on to say that we all can glean exactly what the "Founders" intended just by reading the words in the document. And herein lies the problem!
America has gotten so far away from properly educating our electorate that some actually believe we don't need a Supreme Court! They are so screwed up in their thinking that they believe the Supreme Court was created by Congress and therefore, can be eliminated "for the greater good!" You can bet I cringed when reading this statement and all of the supporting statements that followed. For some folks to believe they alone can determine what the Constitution means just from reading it, seems to ignore why the Framers created the High Court in the first place (Article III of the very document they claim to be "experts" in). The same nonsense can be seen in postings from people supporting a spreading notion that States should be able to ignore anything that comes out of Washington, including Supreme Court rulings. Some true Americans right?
So let us all celebrate our great nation, and pledge to remind our fellow Americans that this nation was built on a foundation of law and that the "Framers" anticipated change and allowed the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution in ways that reflect such change. Think I am wrong? How many ways have our collective national lives changed since 1776? Yet how far from liberty are we getting when individuals claim they know the Constitution better than the Supreme Court, just by reading the document itself? We've got a lot of teaching and learning to do, and that's an American ideal, not a "liberal" or "conservative" one!
As James Madison once wrote; "What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?" Liberty and learning, gee, what a unique thought! Have a great week!
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