‘We the People ...’
AG King Explains Importance of Constitution to Students
Griegos Elementary School fifth-grader Scott McGaha faced a daunting task earlier this week.
New Mexico Attorney General Gary King stuck a microphone in his face and asked him to recite the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution in front of the entire student body.
With barely a stumble, 10-year-old McGaha pulled off the feat as part of the school’s celebration of Constitution Day, drawing resounding applause when he finished.
“It was nerve-wracking because I never did anything in front of big crowd like that,” McGaha admitted.
When he finished, King said, “‘We the people.’ That’s the most important of the Constitution because it puts the power in you.”
King, who has two years remaining in his final term as attorney general, spent the better part of an hour discussing the Constitution with students at the North Valley school, occasionally regaling them with stories and anecdotes from his youth growing up as the late Gov. Bruce King’s son.
“My father, his name is Bruce King, he used to tell the story of when he was in sixth grade, the governor of New Mexico, a guy by the name Clyde Tingley—– have you
ever been to Tingley Beach. To fish? That was named after him — he came to a class like this and he said, ‘You know, one of you in here could be governor.’
“And I’ll say one of you could one day be attorney general. But he looked around at all his classmates and he said, ‘If it’s going to be somebody in here that’s governor, it might as well be me.’”
It’s the Constitution, he told the students, that makes that possible.
“Our forefathers created a government where you guys can go out with freedom and be successful in life,” King said.
Attorneys across the city and state spent time Monday with elementary students discussing the Constitution and its role with the U.S. government.
“I had the opportunity to give that discussion to an entire elementary school so that was interesting for me,” King said following his talk. “We hope we generate some interest among young people about how our government works and why it works.”
Although there was occasional fidgeting, the students for the most part stayed attentive and they appreciated his appearance.
“It was very nice of him to come over to our school and talk to all of the students of our school about it,” McGaha said. “I learned the Constitution was written way, way back then and they were very smart back then to write that.” That made King smile. “I do enjoy this,” he said. “I think that people would be amazed at how bright our students are and how much they enjoy learning some things. I think that they like being in an assembly outside of class for a little while, too, so they get something that’s a little different in the day.”
King also explained to the students the importance of voting.
“That power to vote is an amazing power,” he said. “That means we’re a democracy. There are a lot of countries around the world that are trying to become democracies.”
But our country didn’t start that way, King said.
“When a lot of governments started out they had a king. I’m a King, but I’m not the king,” he said with a chuckle. “The king had power over everybody. The colonists here, they didn’t want that. They wanted a government where the people had the power, not the government that had the power.
“That’s one of the things the fellows that started the government had to think about, was how to create a government where the people had the power,” he said.
And now children like those at Griegos can grow to be anything they want.
“You might be the president,” he said. “You might be the governor. … It takes people to run the government and one of these days, you might run the government. It might as well be you.”