The United States Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 by delegates to the constitutional convention. In doing so, the delegates established the national government of the United States and its fundamental laws. They also established the three branches of government along with what they viewed as a system of checks and balances with the goal of ensuring that no single branch would have too much power. Today, many people are questioning whether that system is effective in ensuring the balance of power. I wonder if assertion of power can ever be balanced in such structure.
In 1956, President Eisenhower signed into law Constitution Week, which runs September 17-23, to commemorate the ratification of the Constitution. In 2004, the federal government designated September 17 as Constitution and Citizenship Day. The Federal government now requires any educational institution that receives federal funding to make information and education about the U.S. Constitution for its students.
As I sit with the task of providing information to the CU community about Constitution Day, I feel compelled to question, perhaps even interrogate, how the Constitution came into being, for whom it was designed, and what was and was not included in it. Let’s take a look at the Preamble to the Constitution.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Although this notion of “We the People” invokes the spirit of inclusion and suggests that all of those who lived in the United States would be benefactors of justice, tranquility, and the blessings of liberty, the creators of the Constitution were far less heterogeneous than the group who they claimed to represent. Women, indigenous people, people of African descent, and even poor white men were not formally included in the drafting and ratification of the document nor did they benefit fully from much of what was articulated in the Constitution.
Despite the high ideals of the Preamble, we, as a nation, still struggle with issues of representation and the full participation of all of “the People.” We still struggle with the provision of justice for all and the blessing of freedom for the many. We still struggle to form “a more perfect Union.”
What can you do to contribute to making us a more perfect Union?
- Understand what the Constitution is and isn’t.
- Interrogate the history that you have been told.
- Create change in your circle of influence.
- VOTE!
Sylvia Spears
Provost and Vice President for Lifelong Learning
Resources:
Get a Free Copy of the Constitution:
https://www.aclu-in.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/PocketConstitution.pdf
Learn About What’s Not in the Constitution:
https://time.com/4433907/constitution-khizr-khan/
Read A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/
Learn About the Engagement of Indigenous People in Debates About the Constitution
Understand Why Democracy Matters:
https://freedomhouse.org/article/what-democracy-and-why-does-defending-it-matter
Get Information about Voting: