That's right ladies and gentlemen, today is National Constitution Day. A "holiday" recently created by congress (2004), designed to raise students knowledge of constitutional law, and I had the opportunity to attend a town hall type presentation on campus discussing recent changes to the U.S. Constitution. Among those speaking were several constitutional law professors, and the chief judge of Ingham County.
Several interesting points were raised during the discussion. One that I had no prior knowledge to was the real reasoning behind the recent firing of the eight district attorneys. Apparently, despite subterfuge to the contrary, these eight particular attorneys were fired based on their unwillingness to aid Bush/Rove in discouraging several activist groups from gathering/enabling lower class citizens to vote in areas of the country that have traditionally suffered from low voter turn out. The reasoning behind the Republican's fear is rooted in statistical fact. 80% of those with income greater than $75K vote, while less than 20% of those with income below the 10K mark actually ever vote. Therefore, the more lower class citizens who turn out to vote, the greater the probability that one day, the Republican party as we know it will cease to exist.
In reference to Dennis Kucinich's recent move to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, all those present agreed that the evidence is sufficient enough to impeach him, but that the ensuing bureaucratic swamp of attempting to do so would postpone his actual removal from office until around August 2008, at which point it would no longer really matter, and we would have wasted millions of dollars, and a great deal of congress' time. The general attitude was that we should have moved to impeach Cheney in 2002, and that even that long ago, the evidence would have been sufficient to do so.
The discussion of war came up, of course, and the panel pointed out that the way in which the Bush Administration handled our attacking Iraq was really nothing new for America. That in fact, the last time there had been an official declaration of war was sixty years ago prior to our entering into WW2. Everything since then has been glorified police actions that have sought to subvert standard policy by exploiting back doors and constitutional loop holes, going directly against the War Powers Act, so that we could wage war despite global opposition abroad, and from U.S. citizens here at home.
They also discussed the near absolute power that is being wielded by the current administration, and it how it is being referred to as "The Imperial Presidency Theory," or rather: The Unitary Executive. The speakers reminded us that our government was originally designed to have the three branches in order to provide checks and balances through a circular system, with an even distribution of power in order to prevent the types of things that have been perpetrated onto the American people since Sept. 11th, 2001.
Perhaps the most surprising moment of the meeting was when the judge, slamming his hands down on the table, shouted into his microphone that we the people are to blame. According to the Honorable R. George Economy, "No one cares enough to do anything. There is far too much lethargy in the American people. Singularly you think that you can't accomplish anything, but you can! You need to stand up and be heard. There are others like you everywhere, who feel the way you do who need to know that you are with them!" He went on to say that "Anytime you begin to notice your rights being chipped away at, it's time to revolt."
However my favorite comment came from Professor Frank Ravitch who stated: "Bush's approach is to destroy what America is, in order to save America. What's the point?"
On a slightly different, but similar note, my eight year old brought home a handout she was given in class today, listing the 10 original amendments. After looking them over, the thought occurred to me that there are probably many Americans who are not even familiar with what those amendments are. Anyway, I'd like to post that list here, and see how many of these amendments are still in place, and how many have recently been ignored, violated or removed.
- Amendment 1: Freedom of speech *critically endangered*, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble Reverend Yearwood: YouTube it, see for yourselves, freedom of religion, and freedom to appeal to the government.
- Amendment 2: The right of the people to bear arms.
- Amendment 3: The government can't force people to house soldiers.
- Amendment 4: Protects our right to privacy. *critically endangered*
- Amendment 5: A person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Mychael Bell?
- Amendment 6: The right to a fair trial with a jury. The Jena 6?
- Amendment 7: The right to ask for a jury in a lawsuit where more than twenty dollars is involved.
- Amendment 8: Forbids the use of cruel or unusual punishment. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo," war on terrorism?"
- Amendment 9: Protects other rights that people have. As long as it is not against the law, it is OK.
- Amendment 10: States have the powers not given to the central government as long as they don't go against the Constitution.
