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Today is Constitution Day. 238 years ago, our founders signed the document that enshrined within it both our contemporary system of governance and the rights we continue to hold dear.
It is not a particularly well-known holiday – certainly not like Independence Day, which has parades, barbeques, and, as all American holidays, rampant sales. And yet, I’d propose Constitution Day is one of the most important holidays to commemorate. While July 4th honors the Declaration of Independence – the breaking of our bonds from the British Empire – the Constitution is the transformation of that destruction into the building of a new union, secured not by the authorities of the new Republic but by “We the People.”
As many of us have learned throughout our lives, it is often much easier to agree that something is indeed broken then to agree on how to fix it. That we did during the Constitutional Convention was, in George Washington’s words, “little short of a miracle.” It is why, as the Constitutional Convention closed, Benjamin Franklin commented on the half-sun emblazoned on George Washington’s chair, saying “I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
On this Constitution Day, I encourage all to commemorate this miraculous document by learning its words, living its values, and of course, helping that sun continue to rise.
- Carrie Filipetti, Executive Director of The Vandenberg Coalition
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