On Tuesday, we celebrated the 226th anniversary of the ratification and signing of our Constitution. On September 17, 1787, 11 of 13 states agreed to the Connecticut Compromise, taking the Virginia Plan, which outlined proportional representation and merged it with the New Jersey Plan, which provided for equal representation.
The sticking point to the ratification was a series of Amendments that many of the participants to the Constitutional Convention felt it was necessary to include in order to give their vote. Once it was agreed that these Amendments would be the first order of business, of the successor to the Articles Congress, which became our Bill of Rights, the Constitution was ratified.
This is the government we enjoy today with a bicameral Congress, a House of Representatives and a Senate.
Iowa schools first recognized Constitution Day in 1911. In 1917, the Sons of the American Revolution formed a committee to promote Constitution Day. The committee would include members such as Calvin Coolidge, John D. Rockefeller, and General John Pershing.
The sticking point to the ratification was a series of Amendments that many of the participants to the Constitutional Convention felt it was necessary to include in order to give their vote. Once it was agreed that these Amendments would be the first order of business, of the successor to the Articles Congress, which became our Bill of Rights, the Constitution was ratified.
This is the government we enjoy today with a bicameral Congress, a House of Representatives and a Senate.
Iowa schools first recognized Constitution Day in 1911. In 1917, the Sons of the American Revolution formed a committee to promote Constitution Day. The committee would include members such as Calvin Coolidge, John D. Rockefeller, and General John Pershing.
All through the 20th century, various groups and people petitioned the government to formalize this day, that in the 1940s, FDR made the day an official, non-observed holiday. The day bounced around in different months until in 1952, the Congress moved the holiday to its present day and changed the name from "I am an American Day" to "Citizen Day".
The law establishing the present holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004. In addition to renaming the holiday "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day," the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.
Sadly, Administrators and campus security told students at California’s Modesto Junior College that they could not hand out copies of the Constitution to fellow students on Constitution Day.
The attempt by Megan Rainwater and Robert Van Tuinen to hand out copies of the Constitution was shut down on Tuesday by campus officials. They were told they would only be able to pass out the Constitution in the college’s free speech zone, and only after scheduling it ahead of time.
I don't know about you, but this action seems to be quite upsetting to me, considering that the First Amendment is all about free speech. Why is it that our schools, colleges and universities allow left wing activities to take place without restriction, even if the activity offends moderate and conservative students, while placing roadblocks and limitations in the way of conservative students?
Isn't this why men and women have died in wars, to protect our Freedom of Speech? This is a very disheartening act, considering that the day should be used to educate all of us on the history, meaning and purpose of this living, breathing document.
Those of you who have read my commentaries know that the Constitution forms the basis of many of my beliefs. It's time to let the "thought police" know their actions are unacceptable to our American sensibilities.
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