We the People have something remarkably profound and quintessentially American to celebrate in the days ahead. Constitution Day is Tuesday, and some area events on the calendar are open to the public.
Indiana University Columbus will host a Constitution Day event — part of which will include sharing voter information — on Tuesday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Activities will take place in the Landing of the Columbus Learning Center, 4555 Central Ave., Columbus.
“The goal of our event is to celebrate the right to vote, encourage engaged citizenship, and have AirPark campus faculty, staff and students — as well as members of the local community — commit to vote,” explained Pamela Morris, event coordinator and IU Columbus associate professor of communication studies.
Meanwhile, Franklin College will host internationally known election law expert Richard L. Hasen as its Constitution Day speaker, though a little later, on Monday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. in the Branigin Room of the Napolitan Student Center.
Schools that receive federal funds are required by law to conduct educational programming related to Constitution Day each year, but it’s worthwhile for older folks to brush up on their civics, too.
If you’re unable to attend either of those Constitution Day events, there are some great online resources to learn about our nation’s founding document. Some of these include:
- The National Constitution Center: constitutioncenter.org.
- The Center for Civic Education: civiced.org.
- National Archives Celebrating Constitution Day: archives.gov/news/topics/constitution-day.
- Library of Congress Constitution Day Education and Resources: loc.gov/extranet/cld/contitution.
We the People may sometimes take our Constitution for granted. After all, the document guaranteeing our basic American freedoms and civil liberties was signed by our Founding Fathers on Sept. 17, 1787, but it took our Article I Congress another 153 years to proclaim Constitution Day a national day of observance.
It may be natural to assume that the Constitution’s hard-won protections — chief among them freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom to peaceably assemble — will forever endure.
But without the will of men and women of good faith and vigilance to stand up for those freedoms — especially our men and women in uniform who swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution — it would be nothing but paper.
For 237 years, our revolutionary Constitution has served our nation well. Not perfectly, but its principles form the core of our national values.
The beauty is, we don’t all have to agree for the Constitution to protect us. If you’re an American, its protections are your birthright. And one of those protections is the right to look at the Constitution, especially its opening prospect for We the People — “to form a more perfect union” — and propose and advocate for what you believe would move our country in that direction.
It is a living document, open to interpretation and revision. This has happened throughout our history — for good and ill — and will continue so long as Americans have opinions, hopes, dreams and vision to secure the blessings of liberty.
