Constitution Day: A forgotten holiday?

Did you know that September 17th is the U.S.A. Constitution Day? Most people don’t. It is the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.

We should be mindful of the role the U.S. Constitution has played in the success of our own lives. We live some of the freest and most affluent lives of any people on the planet. The U.S. Constitution is now the oldest governing document in continuous use anywhere, and has been crucial to the success of the U.S.A.
The U.S. Constitution gives us a system of government with divided and explicitly defined powers. It allowed for a Bill of Rights with strong limits on government actions. Despite many politicians wagging a continuous and somewhat successful assault on many attributes of our Constitution, the Constitution has continued to protect us as a very important contributor to our daily lives and personal freedoms.

Most importantly it helped solidify the religious freedoms that the original anglo settlers came to this blessed land to find. This religious freedom allow many Christian religions to flourish that would otherwise have been persecuted and oppressed by government sponsored and intolerant religious sects of the time, and eventually provided a spring board for them to reach back into the rest of the world.

Whenever governments have less power, and the people more freedom, affluence, security, and peace reign. And whenever governments have more power, and the people less freedom, misery flourishes. The scriptures are full of examples of God blessing those who able to freely worship him. In the U.S.A. even our poorest citizens live more afluent lives then much of the rest of the world. A strong case can be made that the Constitution has a lot to do with this.

The Supreme Court has many times declared some act of Congress or the President as un-constitutional, preserving our freedom and prosperity; although sometimes allowing encroachments on the same. A number of times Presidents have vetoed some over-reaching act of Congress, and Congress has acted to curtail the power of the Executive. Likewise, the Senate has often blocked actions of the House, and vice versa. In this we see not only the genius of the separation of powers, but also the continuing affects of the Bill of Rights.

The separation of powers works. The Bill of Rights works. The Constitution works.
What doesn’t work are politicians and bureaucrats that have far overstepped their powers and the constitutional foundation of our country. A house that modifies it’s original design, without updating or re-enforcing it’s foundation, will not stand when the rain descended, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon that house; and great will the fall of it be.

Ask not what the Constitution can do for you, for its gifts have already been conferred upon you in great abundance. Instead, ask what you can do for the Constitution. Speak up strongly on behalf of the Constitution’s preservation and adherence. Please remind your Congressional representative that today is Constitution Day, and that they swore an oath to serve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Encourage them to read it on this fine day.