Why celebrate Constitution Day? | Julie Silverbrook | BRI’s Constitutional Conversations
Thinking about our extraordinary governing document with Julie Silverbrook, Executive Director of the Constitutional Sources Project.
0:00 so one last question which is what is the importance of Constitution Day now yeah this is a I love Constitution day I everyone knows this I had he handed out pocket constitutions at my wedding hand them out for Halloween my wedding theme
0:20 was a more perfect union why is Constitution Day really important it is one day during the year where you can just think about how extraordinary it is that we have been living under the same written Constitution since it was ratified in 1789 and how amazing that is and that this is allowed for more
0:42 freedom more equality and to reflect on that more perfect union language I think it’s an opportunity to think about the things we’ve done wrong in the past and how we can improve them in the future the things we’ve done right in the past and how we can call upon those things to become better versions of ourselves
1:02 become better better stewards of this great legacy that we’ve been gifted and so I personally love Constitution Day I hope everybody will celebrate it yeah I would say over the last couple of years there’s been a lot of renewed interest in the Constitution so like you have Hamilton on Broadway you have a Broadway
1:23 show that’s coming down to the Kennedy Center in DC called what the Constitution means to me I’m actually having people ask me for pocket constitutions which was really rare people who you might not expect to ask for for pocket constitutions and I took my mom to back surgery and her orthopedic surgeon asked which is oh your mom told me do stuff related to the
1:44 Constitution do you have a pocket Constitution I said I always carry a spare and I so I shared with him just it just you never know and sometimes you just want to share share it with people so I think I think we’re at a moment to go back to the theme of of what your you’re going toward for this constitution day of Laura vez you know we’re looking for those connective
2:06 strands we’re looking for the ties that bind us and Constitution in our history that’s what we share in common and again to go back to you know not to gloss over and say that there aren’t really negative parts of our history but that’s still a part of who we are that still who what connects us to each other and having an
2:26 appreciation for that have an appreciation for where we might go next that’s exciting it’s empowering and it’s uniting and I think Constitution day is a perfect time it’s right at the beginning of the school year it’s right after this summer people should be relatively well-rested right it’s just such a good time to grapple with these
2:48 issues and to study and to get excited and I also would just say Constitution Day can be a full 365 days of the year every day is Constitution day at Khan source I know it’s the same at the Bill of Rights Institute and so I hope if it’s just one day that we can capture some young people to get them excited about this and turn that into a lifelong
3:10 passion or it’s one day where we get someone to say you know what now then you know a little bit about the Constitution I have some questions for my elected officials or I have some questions for people I in my local community that’s amazing if we can empower just one person through Constitution Day that’s amazing if we could empower millions all the better