The U.S. Constitution — we need it

I was watching “Sunday Morning” on CBS and was quite stunned by an op-ed piece by Louis M. Seidman, professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University. The title of his piece was “Take our country back, from the Constitution.”

Well, that grabbed my attention. I listened to his ideas with a growing concern. I won’t go into the entire thing, but the end line is something I will go into: “If we are to back our own country, we have to start making decisions for ourselves and stop deferring to ancient and outdated document.”

The document he was referring to is the U.S. Constitution. I must say with all respect to the good professor and with my whole heart, I must disagree. I believe many Americans will share in my opinion. The Constitution is the very heart and soul of the government of the United States. Without it there would not be an America.

Since its creation in 1787 and ratification in 1788, the Constitution, along with the Bill of Rights, formed the workings of this nation’s government — a first in history at the time. It was a nation ruled by the consent of the people and not by the hereditary rule of Kings and churches who believed their authority came from the divine.

It is in reality the backbone of the entire way we govern this nation. From the setup of our branches of government — the Executive, Judicial and Legislative. To who and how we elect our leadership, it says how to do it and why. It isn’t written in stone. It can be amended to fix a wrong or to ensure the rights of all Americans to the freedoms it espouses.

One example was slavery. This nation once supported it, by both the North and South at the time the Constitution was written. The North gave it up voluntarily. The south? Well, it took a major war to make those states come around, along with a helpful push of the pen by President Lincoln in 1862. The end result of four years of bloody civil war that nearly tore this nation to bits was the 13th Amendment. That was added to the Constitution in late 1865, nine months after President Lincoln’s untimely death in April of the same year.

Another mistake was that of prohibition, which was the 18th Amendment in 1920. That turned out to be a fiasco on a major scale, along with the rise of organized crime and the violence from illegal liquor sales that ensued. That prompted Congress to repeal it in 1933 as the 21st amendment. The only time an amendment was repealed.

From defining civil rights to voting rights that gave all Americans the rights we enjoy today in the 21st century, the U.S Constitution, the Bill of Rights and to complete the package the Declaration of Independence, made all of these things a reality that many countries try to emulate in their own efforts to govern wisely.

Our elected leaders and members of the U.S. armed forces swear to support and defend it from all enemies foreign and domestic, before taking office or beginning a career serving as a soldier, airman, sailor or Marine. It has had that kind of an impact on our society. Whether or not our founding fathers saw this coming I cannot say. All I know is they designed it to last far beyond their time on this good earth, and it has done just that.

Like I said before, it is not perfect or written in stone. It is, however, a living and evolving piece of writing that makes us who we are as Americans. It is an amazing piece of work, and that it has be around all this time is a testament to its strength.

So, Professor Seidman, I believe you couldn’t have been more wrong. To think a professor of Constitutional law would even say such a thing boggles the mind. Not only did this document help forge the United States of America, it keeps it together, from 1787 to today, and I hope well into the future. We need it. To lose it would be a tragedy of monumental scale beyond belief.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.