On Monday, Sept. 17, Texas A&M University-Commerce celebrated Constitution Day.
The presentation began at 11 a.m. in the Founders Lounge of the Memorial Student Center, where people congregated to listen to speeches from Dr. Charles Elliot, Dr. Chad King and Dr. John Smith.
“We recognize and celebrate the constitution because of its wisdom and endurable success. It is a live document because of founder’s ability to establish a government on sound principles of liberty, checks and balances, separation of powers and other ideals we see as important today as we did then.” Paul Lenchner, head of political science said.
After an introduction from Lenchner, the audience listened to Elliot, King and Smith speak about three constitutional challenges the United States has been facing from the time of the writing of the constitution, to today.
First up was Smith, assistant professor of history, who started the celebration by talking about the impact that religion has had on our constitution.
According to Smith, the faith of our constitutional founders had a large amount of impact on what was written in the document.
He then went on to talk about the First Amendment, which gives U.S. citizens the freedom of press, religion, speech, assembly and petition. Smith argued that when it came to the separation of church and state, there was actually no separation what so ever.
“The First Amendment created not a wall of separation from church and state, but actually a kind of speed bump along the way,” Smith said.
Second to speak was Elliot, professor of political science, whose topic was over the spirit of the constitution.
“We celebrate more than just a document. We celebrate, I hope the spirit of the constitution. What was born in the city of Philadelphia has become a living, breathing force in our culture,” Elliot said.
In his shorter speech he emphasized that our constitution is something to be cherished, but will never be fully completed.
“The Constitution is not finished, it will never be finished. We can try to speculate about its meaning, about its future, but what we do her and now is try to honor its well established tradition, with each new amendment and interpretation,” Elliot said.
The final speaker for the presentation was King, professor of history, spoke to the audience about property rights.
“Property rights are a little known issue, and among the students at this campus would not make the top ten things that you would think about when you hear about the constitution,” King said.
King also stressed the importance of the day, and how it ties into education.
“This is a great day to celebrate because it is based upon a very noble goal, which is to promote education of the constitution. It seems that students get caught up in what they need to do on a day to day basis, when they should be thinking about the issues in a more modern real world setting, like the one we live in today,” King said.
The presentation wrapped up with King’s speech and a thank you to those in attendance from Lenchner.
“I found the speech very enjoyable, it is the best I have seen in several years, I was glad to see so many students turn out today, and happy to see the panelists addressing current issues that affect us today, ” Mary Hendrix, interim provost of academic and student affairs said.