Ignorance is not bliss

Did you do anything fun to celebrate Constitution Day? In case you were wondering, the officially recognized day dedicated to our glorious constitution falls every year on Sept. 17. Yeah, I had no idea either. Upon being informed, however, that such a holiday exists, I became so excited that I could barely to resist the urge to go burn a flag just for the sheer pleasure of freedom. I can still burn a flag, right?\n Unsure, I chose instead to saunter by the bars dressed up like a pirate, then danced around a bon fire, singing sailor songs till the wee hours; but that had more to do with the upcomming National Talk Like a Pirate Day, (which is Wednesday, by the way) than celebrating our constitution. Either way, I certainly enjoy having the freedom to walk around at night dressed in men’s clothes, drinking grog in mixed company, whenever I feel so inclined. There are many places in the world where women are not so equal.\n As I have been known to articulate in the past, our constitution is a beautiful living document, meant to ebb and flow with distinct needs of modern Americans and protect the most vulnerable and marginalized populations among us. As the faces of those populations change over time, the structure of the constitution allows for changes to be made in protection of those new demographics; slaves were freed, women could vote, and so on. The elasticity of the equal protection clause in particular has given way to leaps and bounds of equity and autonomy, and must, by the very nature of precedent, continue to be interpreted as such in the future.\n Sadly, the average American seems not to have the slightest clue what the constitution entails, nor what the philosophical leanings of the framers and their intents could have been. According to the annual survey done by the First Amendment Center of Vanderbilt University, nearly two-thirds of American adults believe our founders intended America to be a Christian nation and more than half believe the constitution officially established America as a Christian country. Only 56 percent understand that freedom of religion extends to all faiths and 75 percent would censor the wardrobes of public school students.\n The ignorance is horrifying. Since people in this country apparently need a brush-up on constitutional law: America was set up specifically not to have an official religion, exercise of religion extends to everyone, without fail, and censorship of expression is fundamentally antithetical to freedom of speech. Can you hear me now?\n As one of the most unconstitutional administrations in American history winds down, we, those blessed with higher education, carry the responsibility of vigilantly re-educating ourselves and the upcoming generations on the actual tenants of our country. Only a home-grown, grass roots campaign, wearing out shoe leather for awareness can effectively re-establish the widespread understanding of our basic freedoms that the president and his cronies have tried so hard to obscure. \nAnd for the record, flag burning is, indeed, a constitutionally protected form of symbolic speech. For now.