1st national Constitution Day calls for rededication to those values

By James Ackerman

Many Americans seem to have forgotten what it means to be a citizen.

They have forgotten the responsibilities that come with citizenship: the responsibility to remain informed about your government, to participate in your government, and to check the power of government through vigilance.

This month, we commemorate the first-ever Constitution Day in the United States. A long overdue event, Constitution Day gives us an opportunity to acknowledge the Sept. 17, 1787, signing of the document that serves as a key instrument of our freedom. By setting aside this day, Congress has asked schools to develop programs that highlight the Constitution and to encourage its study and understanding.

It’s an observation that I hope will invigorate our collective sense of citizenship. We have become complacent. Even in our most basic responsibility, we fail: Some studies suggest that barely more than half of all voting-age Americans voted in the last presidential election.

I especially worry about our young people. If you talk to college students today, many could not name two U.S. Supreme Court justices, identify the three branches of government or list even one or two of the rights afforded them under the Bill of Rights. It is this lack of appreciation for the fundamental meaning of citizenship that drove my wife and me to support the creation of the Purdue University’s Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship, which trains Indiana teachers to integrate citizenship education into their classrooms.

If our nation is to continue to grow, prosper and serve as an example to the world, we all must take responsibility for our citizenship. We must understand that citizenship is not a passive exercise, but an active engagement.

What can you do? Reacquaint yourself with the documents upon which our nation was founded by reading the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Make sure you know the names of your senators and representatives. Embrace opportunities to participate in our government by voting and serving.

If you’re a teacher or parent, share this opportunity to learn with children. Go the library to read a copy of the Constitution, or go to the Web site for the National Constitution Center. Or visit the Bill of Rights page and use the questions there to discuss the Bill of Rights.

In other words, be a citizen, and help young people develop their citizenship.

In Iraq, the people recently completed a draft constitution. While, the creation of that document is being described as a key moment in the evolution of that nation, the new constitution will not magically cure all of Iraq’s problems, or suddenly create peace among enemies within its borders. But it will offer a foundation upon which a new future can be built.

That same kind of foundation was established here 218 years ago, when 39 men gathered in Philadelphia to sign the U.S. Constitution. It’s the foundation that supports our freedoms and our prosperity. But it’s a foundation that will last only if each of us takes responsibility for maintaining and protecting it over time.

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