Starting today through Saturday is Constitution Week and this letter is a reminder for all American citizens to reread the Constitution. We take our freedoms so much for granted that it behooves us to tell our children and grandchildren about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the creation of the Constitution.

Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, and after gaining our independence, a small group of delegates convened in Philadelphia to create a new Constitution for governing the newly created nation. The U.S. Constitution is the oldest and shortest of the written national constitutions. More than 11,000 amendments have been introduced in Congress, but only 33 have gone to the states to be ratified and only 27 have become amendments to the Constitution.

To quote Patrick Henry, “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”

And the Preamble to the Constitution is an affirmation of our loyalty to our country and respect for our patriots who fought for our freedoms:

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Never forget!

Joanne McCoy

Bayfield