QUESTIONING THE RELEVANCY OF THE CONSTITUTION
(is an oxymoronic….question)

The latest pundit crie du jour is questioning the relevancy of the Constitution. That in itself is an oxymoronic….question!

Apparently there are lots of folks who are thinking the same thing. They seem to think it has become just an anachronistic relic, one that has long outlived the context of the times of when it was produced. For them they feel its antique expressions and constraints can’t be properly applied to today’s economic, social, and political matrix.

Such views of our Constitution makes us wonder if any of these honorable folks have ever actually read it, or any part of it, or any of the many amendments made to it since the Founders first produced it? The answer seems to be….very few.

I’ve read it. In fact I carry a handy pocket-sized booklet containing it, and all its amendments, plus the Declaration of Independence besides. And, I browse through it all, on and off, but on a continuing basis, just to confirm in my mind any questions raised on a current issue of concern yammered about by a variety of parties, none of whom seem to be arguing about it from a constitutional perspective….but only from their own.

The Constitution is probably even more relevant to us today, than it must have been 236 years ago when the Founders put it together. I say even more relevant because we have become a vastly more diverse society than back then, and without a properly designed and flexible framework for governance our nation could not have lasted this long.

We are a polyglot and poly-cultural society, and our ideal of – E Pluribus Unum – could never hold that kind of dynamic diversity together without the right kind of glue to keep it that way. And the key element of that “glue” is…our Constitution, along with the common laws that derive from it, and, a common language so all that diversity can communicate. In short it is the foundation on which we’ve built our national structure. A foundation so secure that it has withstood almost every kind of conceivable stresses that could have otherwise destroyed a more jerry-built structure (like that of so many other nations have today).

The Founders who designed and put this blueprint of governance together for us were intelligent and educated people. They also had the smarts to understand that it had to be inherently flexible, to be capable of adapting to the changing circumstances of the future. The mechanism they provided us for that flexibility and adaptability is…. the amendment process.  Without that, the whole thing would have fossilized a long time ago, and those who now question its relevancy would be right. But it hasn’t ….so….they are wrong.

CENTURION