Guest Blogger: Sam P.
Rhetoric is nice and all, but it has been blogged to death. You could say I have “bigger fish to fry”. That is why I am going to blog about the government side of APLG. As we all know quite well, for the past few days in class we have been dissecting the US Constitution and its amendments.
What really interests me in particular are the amendments. I am intrigued by the way that these 27 amendments can give such life to the Constitution; they can turn it into a living and growing government which is capable of changing with the times. Capable, yes, but willing? Not always. It took a war to pass the 13th amendment giving slaves freedom and still another five years for voting laws to ignore color of skin and race. Another important amendment that seems logical enough is the 19th amendment, women’s suffrage. 129 years that women could not vote, 129 years where men would look and say women voting is ludicrous. Yet now 89 years later how obvious of a decision to ratify the 19th amendment; how ludicrous do these men’s opinions seem to modern Americans?
Now when I look at today’s national issues, for example gay marriage and abortion, I see the same thing happening. I see future generations looking back 100 years from now at us saying how obvious to allow gay marriage, how obvious to allow women’s rights to their own bodies. In essence our “hot button issues” of today are not really that hot, they are just tough and uncomfortable paradigms for us as a country to embrace, make our own, and adopt into our constitution.
Just as the founders of our great country struggled with their own “hot button issues” like the abolishment of slavery and women’s suffrage, we as a nation today must also struggle through our own modern issues. Today such issues carry with them great strife and discord. However, tomorrow’s Americans will not only be capable of dealing with these issues, but more importantly willing to accept the truth behind them.
“Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.”
–Robert Frost
posted by erdecker @ 10:25 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Outstanding Sam! I like how you took the content and applied it with a modern reference and then pondered the future. You have definitely laid a seed well worth watering for Monday's symposium (discussion).
Mr. Thompson
Indeed, Sam! I'm sure with a bit of incubation by us, your ideas will blossom forth, bearing fruit which will enrich the cornucopia of our ideas. Harvest on!
Excelent, Sam. I completely agree. In the future, people will compare today's opponents of gay rights with yesterday's opponents of civil rights and women's rights, and the constitution will reflect that. Paradigms shifts will always continue to happen.
-Jake H.
I concur, hindsight may be twenty-twenty, but the present is always mirky. It is always easy to ridicule decisions made in the past, but one most remember that in most cases we know the outcome of their decision and that the current viewer generally has a different paradigm then they did, resulting in a different decision process between the past decision maker and the current viewer.
Sam, you're absolutely right. The Constitution was designed to be easy to amend, but difficult enough that we don't have over 9000 amendments. I would like to pose a question to the people who amend like crazy. Does this issue really need to be an amendment? Will the world care in 20 years. It's like Prohibition. At the time, it was very important, but after a while, new leaders came around and the movement was not popular anymore. It could be the same way with gay marriage or abortion. 20 years down the line, we may look back and say, "Did we really fight tooth and nail about this ridiculous right?" or "I can't believe that we actually considered allowing that!" depending on what the outcome is. So the question of the hour is, are some amendments really necessary? Can it be done with a federal or state law instead?
Since there is no other adjectives left with the recent comments to say how Sam did a great job, I will just agree.
And to answer Josh's question of the hour here it is...
As said that most of the Amendments added are ridiculus to the citizens of today but very meaningful at that time. I think in a way many things are being solved by the state laws already. Today as we all know that Iowa has passed the law letting to people of the same sex marry, and in many states it is legal to have an abortion. In a way the smaller (yet huge) problems are being solved without amending the constitution. So in the future I can see many of the problems being solved without even considering the process of changing it on the constitution...
Going to what Kayla said, is it good or bad that things now are being changed without amending the constitution?
The constitution is meant to create a Federalist system, with power divided between both the states and the national government. So it would seem okay for a state to make their own laws on certain issues.
On the contrary, states are becoming more independant of the constitution. They're making laws on things that are still being debated on as to whether they are constituional or not. It may seem obvious to some, but What if the ruling is that abortion and/or gay marriage are unconstitutional?
The full faith and credit clause states that states should have full faith and credit in each other and respect each others laws. If a more liberally-minded state legalizes these tough issues, but another more conservative state doesn't agree, will they still have "full faith and credit" in each other? Will they still respect the laws that the liberal state has created, even if they don't agree? I honestly don't know the answer to that question (if anyone does, i'd be interested to know)
The question is, is this an issue that should be a part of the constitution, at the risk of weakening the bond between the states?
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