CONSTITUION DAY
September 17, 1787 deserves a holiday equal to July 4, 1776.
It is called Constitution Day. Two Hundred thirty-nine years ago, thirty-nine men in Philadelphia signed a compact to a frame of Liberty purchased at a price we can scarcely imagine today.
Many let it pass unmarked and unmentioned. That neglect is a national tragedy.
Those men had studied the wreckage of every historical republic from the past. They learned that a nation could keep the outward form of a republic while surrendering its soul. These gentlemen were not improvising. They had learned and understood that Power, if not controlled, always grows, and that the only reliable restraint on power is a written barrier---if the people will defend it. Thomas Jefferson knew human activity well when he wrote, 'In question of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.' The chains are only as strong as the citizens are willing to keep them rust free.
The Constitution is a command. It tells our Republic what it may do and also what it may not do. Our Constitution cannot enforce itself but depends on the vigilance of a free people. Take away the vigilance and it slowly begins to rot. The form remains, but power will slip in. Elections continue to be held, but substance is slowly disappearing and what is appearing is a shell of a republic housing machinery of slipped constitutional restraints such as: agencies write law without representation; courts discover meaning outside the original intent; a Federal Government that was assigned only a handful of enumerated tasks now reaches into every aspect of our lives; the federated sovereign states, meant to stand as pillars against overreach have been bribed to silence with their own citizens' money.
This is a government our Founders feared. So let us promote a national yearly recognition of our unique U.S. Constitution-designed to bind down those of mischief intent. The Founders did their part. They gave us the finest form of government devised by the mind of men. It is now up to us to defend it by responsible citizen civic participation.
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