A couple of years ago, I purchased a copy of the Penguin Books Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. It was July 4th, and I had never read them together.
In my typical fashion, when the language to the introduction became a little dense, I put it down. I always meant to pick it back up. I just never did.
This week I gave it another shot. A combination of complete despair, binge-watching The West Wing, and a sense that, as a nation, we simply need to start over, made me curious about all the documents I should have read as a student but never did in full.
What’s fascinating about reading the Series Introduction at this particular moment in history are certain key phrases, such as “…the age-old debate on how and where to strike the best balance between public order and personal liberty.” Hmm…to wear or not wear a mask – that is the question. Or “…the relationship of the new federal government to the individual states…” Let’s see, certain governors do a better job of managing a global pandemic than the federal government does. We really seem to be back at the beginning again.
Perhaps the energy I really needed was in the following sentence at the end: “Our opinions of the ‘correct’ way to proceed may not always prevail, but we will at least be participants, not passive bystanders, in the ongoing drama that is the history of the United States.”