On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
When learning about the Constitution in US History courses, well, I never really cared. The long-forgotten arguments about loose vs strict constructionism, three-fifths compromises, even the Bill of Rights - to these all seemed hopelessly lost to the past, not particularly important in my world today.
My opinion has changed.
As I’ve grown more politically aware (at least of some of the politics within my own country, if not so much globally), suddenly some of those remount shards of knowledge seep back to the surface, ready to become applicable in “real life”. And I’ve grown a tremendous respect for those early politicians whose jobs were to craft this document destined to become “the Law of the Land”. How they predicted some of the issues that would arise, it astounds me. Their foresight in establishing an amendment process, their vision that their 13 states would one day be joined by more, and a three-branched government to provide balance of power; these astound me now.
The Constitution was written by humans (like everything else on earth). Yet somehow, it is holy in its own right. It is indeed “set apart”. It is, indeed, worthy of my respect, as were the men who first signed it 223 years ago.
