http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFD-bnjGDfc
It is often asked, why should students study the US Constitution in high school? At first glance it does indeed seem like a valid query, unless you are planning on becoming a judge, lawyer, police officer or politician then you are not going to make extensive use of the Constitution in your daily life. It may seem valid until the realization is made that even if many people don’t necessarily use it, the US Constitution is still a very important part of life in America and must be understood in order for people to realize how much it impacts their day to day lives. From how we speak to our friends to how we interact with figures of authority the Constitution governs almost every aspect of our lives and studying it in school opened my eyes to many new facts that I did not know or truly understand until then.
Perhaps the most relevant thing that I learned while learning about the Constitution was how much its amendments, the First Amendment in particular, protected us from being taken advantage of by a potentially tyrannical government [1]. Freedom of speech guarantees the average citizen’s right to say anything covered by the various protected categories of speech, though as of now hate speech, fighting words, obscenity, slander and libel and incitements of violence are unprotected and thus the First Amendment will not help you should you say them to someone in earshot of a police officer [2]. Freedom of press cements your right to print anything you want to, from pamphlets letting people know about town events to anti establishment packets advocating the overthrow of the government. Freedom to assemble peacefully guarantees one’s right to demonstrate and speak out against what they view as unfair practices or events that need to be changed or stopped altogether. Freedom to redress the government for grievances gives citizens the power to petition the federal government and ask them to change things, for example the many thousands of petitions that have been filed to halt the war in Afghanistan and end the domestic spying done by the NSA [3]. Learning about how much these rights contained within the First Amendment really protected the American people from harm done by authority figures amazed me and made me immensely grateful to be living in a country that has such rights written into its constitution for everyone to enjoy.
However, even as I learned all of this I became aware that even if I did know a little about the US Constitution there certainly were no shortage of people out there who do not know anything at all about the constitution besides loosely affiliated catch phrases such as ‘freedom‘ and ‘American rights.‘ Having a population of people in this country who do not know anything about how the constitution protects their rights is ultimately detrimental to freedom and liberty due to those same people not knowing what limits their freedom and what doesn’t, which leads to ridiculous exchanges like those that we can see today on Capitol Hill, with many Senators and Representatives claiming that just about everything that the opposition passes will destroy American freedoms whilst steadfastly ignoring the gaping unconstitutional maw of the Patriot Act doing its best to swallow up the American people’s freedoms right behind them [4].
But despite the ignorance that many people display about the constitution I cannot claim to be very much more educated about it myself. I still have many questions to ask about that venerable document, chief amongst them is the query ‘why is there still no clear trend over what works in regards to governing the nation?’ In this country there are two schools of thought, one recommending that the government take an active role in governing the country through such things as education, welfare and economic regulations while the other school of thought advocates for the opposite path; a decreased federal role in everything that I just listed above. In many other countries, Scandinavian ones in particular, they have had the same style of government for many years while also enjoying extensive civil and political rights. I suppose it might be because we are still a very young country in comparison to many of the more venerable nations out there on the world stage but I’d think that in this age of unprecedented stability and globalism that we’d have decided on a path already.
In conclusion, an understanding of the US Constitution is essential in order to not only protect one’s rights but also to gain an understanding of how this country was founded and what the men who wrote our constitution had to go through in order to complete that document. Ignorance of basic rights can and will lead to manipulation of said rights and examples of things like that occurring are sprinkled throughout history everywhere from Weimar Germany to Mussolini’s Italy [5]. To avoid the constitution being slowly shredded before our very eyes an understanding of it is required so that we can protect it just as much as it protects us.
Citations
[1] "THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION." constitutionus.com. N.p., 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://constitutionus.com>.
[2] "Categories of Unprotected Expression." www.wneclaw.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://www.wneclaw.com/medialaw/unprotectedcategories.html>.
[3] M., P. "Pardon Edward Snowden." petitions.whitehouse.gov. N.p., 9 June 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD>.
[4] Kashan, Sunya. "The USA Patriot Act: Impact on Freedoms and Civil Liberties." dc.cod.edu. N.p., 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1123&context=essai>.
[5] "The Rise of Fascism." www.ocs.cnyric.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://www.ocs.cnyric.org/webpages/phyland/files/the%20rise%20of%20fascism.pdf>.
