Letter to the Editor: Remembering vital role of Constitution
Trending
Sept. 17 was "Constitution Day," this year being the 239th anniversary of the day our Constitution was signed.
There was little recognition comparable to the momentous 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Of course the Constitution is the vastly more important document to remember as we (once again) observe that many of our elected national politicians find it more important to leave DC and fight with each other for reelection rather than to reach consensus on the basic duties described for them by the Constitution.
It's helpful to remember our history. It took a relatively short time to escape from a monarchy.vIt took longer to engage in the serious discussions and eventually reach consensus on a unique form of government (neither a monarchy nor a democracy) designed to be stable for a very long time but also having an Amendment process for those critical needs that the vast majority can agree on.
The first test of that was our Bill of Rights; the first ten Constitutional Amendments (out of 12 that were originally proposed).
It's fairly short reading, but took four more years to be agreed and then ratified on Dec. 15, 1791.
As the last frenzy of this midterm election campaign begins, let's hope that both the candidates and us voters will keep in mind that our state and local elections are the ones where we should have the most knowledge of the needs, and cast our votes wisely. As far as the DC candidates specifically, let's hope that their campaigning appearances will give them a clear impression of the importance of their "Constitution" duty.
George Roe
Vienna