Show Shen an gives Constitutional civics lesson Kathryn Jones Campus Editor a Some things a person just takes for granted Like the constitution According to Rick speaker at the recent Constitution Day celebration on Sept 14 Americans go through their lives hardly thinking of it and when they do its it's with honest confusion Dont confuse the with the Constitution said who gave audience participants an opportunity to test their kno knowledge ledge When jn in the course of human events' events that's the Declarations of Independence The Constitution starts off with We the people of the United States The theme of the event The Constitution What's It Good for gave students an opportunity to reflect on some very important topics regarding the constitution and its meaning beginning with a straightforward definition A constitution is the basic law said Its the law that establishes government structure And its it's a blueprint for society Previous to the constitution we had what was called common law law law- not to be mistaken with the common law of people living together as husband and wife said Common law refers to basically the decisions of courts through the ages after the revolution Virtually all states in the union passed a law in their separate states adopting the common law of Great Britain as their own When certain issues cropped up up other laws would pass to update the common law said What followed was the Articles of Confederation- Confederation a document the separate rA y yr r R Jk J a ay x y Photo by Kathryn Jones Rick spoke at Redwood as part of Constitution Celebration Day The Articles of Confederation were inadequate said and so 55 delegates met on the second floor of Independence Hall in Philadelphia to start from scratch It was a secret meeting Not even the press knew what was really happening in that room in May of 1787 They wanted to be able to talk to each other with unfettered freedom To say what was on their mind mind- argue change their opinion without having to defend their opinions before the court of public opinion said What came thereafter is what we know today as the Constitution Even though it occurred in the century in inthe inthe inthe the quill pen era it really wasn't so long ago explained When John Tyler waa was wa wasa a boy George Wash Washington was president of the United States he said Pearl Tyler Johns John's last child Constitution Continued on page 3 Constitution celebrated Continued from page 1 was born bom in 1860 before the Civil war She lived until 1947 that's one year before Bill Clinton was born in inthe inthe inthe the beginning of the baby boom So all of American history can be summed up in the last three people Unfortunately Americans dont don't know enough about our short history said suggesting that three out of four Americans know for example that the zip code for Beverly Hills is but only two out of four Americans know that the constitution was drafted in Philadelphia spoke of Senator Robert Byrd elected to congress in 1952 a man who played the fiddle on the campaign trail A Aman Aman Aman man who was appalled at athow athow athow how little Americans American's knew about their country This same man got congress to pass a law requiring all educational institutions that receive federal funds to devote some portion of their time during the month of September to educate Americans about the constitution Constitution Day traditionally celebrated on Sept 17 was signed into law on Dec 8 2004 by President Bush t tAnd And that's why Im I'm here i i today said 1 1 I I |