It Still Matters...Just As Much As Ever

Via:  The Daily Caller

On Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Time magazine editor Richard Stengel presented the cover of his new July 4 issue, which features the U.S. Constitution going through a paper shredder and asks does the document still matter. According to Stengel, it does, but not as much anymore.

Mr. Stengel believes The Constitution is a "living, breathing document", even though he doesn't necessarily care for that wording.

Mr. Stengel went on to say later in the interview, that Americans don't know much about the Constitution.  He said a poll had been taken at the Constitution Center when he was there several years ago that said more Americans knew who the Three Stooges were than knew the three Branches of Government.  He added that he thought there was a good aspect to that, because people go on living their lives and that's what the Constitution was created to allow them to do.




I think one of the comments left by a reader says it all:

pitynoman

Having been born in the Soviet Union…without any rights and with the State Sponsored -Antisemitism to boot….and I grew up atheist since religion was AGAINST THE LAW!!!.I’d say it matters very much…..until you’ve risked your life to defend it…you really don’t know what it means!!!
Had you posted some of these comments in Russia….the KGB will be knocking on your door….but have no fear….since Constitution means nothing to some of you… the Department of Homeland security will be doing the same thing soon enough !
For those that fought for it, freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know!
Vlad Fayershteyn, Sergeant, USMC (disabled veteran)

12:58 PM 06/24/2011 - 12:58 PM

Read the entire article, but one warning, have a package of Tums close by:

One Document, Under Siege
by Richard Stengel

Here are a few things the framers did not know about: World War II. DNA. Sexting. Airplanes. The atom. Television. Medicare. Collateralized debt obligations. The germ theory of disease. Miniskirts. The internal combustion engine. Computers. Antibiotics. Lady Gaga.
People on the right and left constantly ask what the framers would say about some event that is happening today. What would the framers say about whether the drones over Libya constitute a violation of Article I, Section 8, which gives Congress the power to declare war? Well, since George Washington didn't even dream that man could fly, much less use a global-positioning satellite to aim a missile, it's hard to say what he would think. What would the framers say about whether a tax on people who did not buy health insurance is an abuse of Congress's authority under the commerce clause? Well, since James Madison did not know what health insurance was and doctors back then still used leeches, it's difficult to know what he would say. And what would Thomas Jefferson, a man who owned slaves and is believed to have fathered children with at least one of them, think about a half-white, half-black American President born in Hawaii (a state that did not exist)? Again, hard to say.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2079445,00.html#ixzz1QENl7TxV