Happy Constitution Day

Today is the anniversary of the day that the founding fathers signed the Constitution, and then sent it to the states for ratification. It is a day to celebrate this truly great document of checks and balances, separation of powers, and individual freedoms.

I attended a Constitution Day luncheon today that was set up by the Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) program that I am a member of here at IU. The luncheon was designed to stimulate discussion amongst the many students in attendance with IU faculty being the "discussion facilitators."

My table's discussion went toward a rather interesting question about the constitution. Should there be a new constitutional convention to draft a new document?

I am completely opposed to this idea, but the debate that rose out of this question was intellectually stimulating for me, and for most of the other students at the table.

The main point made by those that were in favor of a new document was that the constitution as it stands now was invalid because it did not receive adequate representation from the entire country, the thirteen colonies at the time, and that it was unfairly pushed on the people that it governed.

Of course the latter of their statement is not true because although not all colonies chose to send delegates, all the colonies had final word on ratification.

Also, students that were in favor of "Constitution 2.o" were very eerie of the document's original racism, such as the 3/5 compromise.

However, I believe that even though this document has its flaws, the beauty of the document allows ways to fix these flaws. The constitution is a living breathing, document. It is capable of changing to fit the times. If the document was so flawed that it needed scrapped, we would not have a bill of rights, which were all changes to the original constitution. Africans would not have the freedom they have now thinks to the reconstruction amendments of the 1860's. Women would not have the right to vote, as they do due to the 19th amendment of the 1920's. These examples show that as the greater public demands, the constitution can provide.

So, in conclusion, the Constitution of the United States is a framework for how government should work, not a model of how it does. When something does not work, we can change it, to better the document, and to better the country.

Our founding fathers gave us a wonderful foundation on which to build the best republican form of government on Earth. We are the bearers of that foundation, and we have built a beautiful structure atop of it. However, thanks to the genius of those founding fathers, we are still able to do a little "remodel" every now and then to keep pace with history, and to ensure that the United State remains the brightest light on Earth.