Sept. 17 might be the most overlooked holiday
” Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution ... for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Each year on the Fourth of July, I display my flag, and it has plenty of company as all my neighbors do the same. It’s Independence Day.
I also hang my flag each year on Sept. 17, but on this day, it has no company. No one seems to know that this is a special day, so my flag is lonely on Constitution Day.
It shouldn’t be.
The signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, was a great event in our history. It set the stage for the play to begin. But the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, was a seismic event, because it made the play a success.
Constitution Day, previously known as Citizens Day, was established by Congress in 2004, but has languished in obscurity ever since. It deserves more attention than it receives. Consider the following:
It took Thomas Jefferson 17 days in June of 1776 to pen the Declaration. In contrast, during the hot summer months of 1787 in Philadelphia, it took 55 delegates from 12 states, 116 days of committee meetings, discussion, writing, heated debate and significant compromise to write the Constitution.
Within this brief document, the shortest one in the world, with its seven articles and 27 amendments, you will find the glue that has bound our country together for the past 234 years. It has overcome two major threats to our Republic, both resulting from deep divisions within American society and misinterpretations of the Constitution.
The first occurred as Lincoln began his term in office. Within months of his election in 1860, our Republic was threatened when 11 states seceded from the Union, believing that under the Constitution every state had the right to leave the Union if they wished.
President Lincoln disagreed, saying there was no provision in the Constitution to allow secession; thus, it is unlawful. The Civil War followed, the Union was preserved, and Lincoln’s legacy of greatness was secured.
The second occurred as President Donald Trump’s term in office was coming to an end. Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress was to officially certify the electoral college results. On this day, the peaceful transfer of power that had transpired in the past 58 quadrennial elections was threatened.
The president believed the vice president had the constitutional authority to reject the electoral ballots and return them to the states for recertification. He publicly pressured Mike Pence to do so. The vice president disagreed, saying he had no such constitutional authority. The rest is history.
The insurrection occurred, the sacred halls of the Capitol were desecrated, five lives were lost and 14 were injured. When order was restored, Congress reconvened, and Vice President Pence presided over the certification of the electoral ballots per the 12th Amendment. The Constitution, and the vice president’s courage in defending it, prevented America from possibly disintegrating into anarchy.
For the record, the president was misinformed about the Constitution. The Electoral Count Act of 1887 specifically limits the power of the vice president as the presiding official and makes it quite clear that the vice president is a “presider,” not a “decider.”
Jan. 6 now joins 9/11 as a dark day in our history, but more insidious, as the attack was not carried out by Islamic terrorists, but by misled American citizens. Unlike 9/11, which unified America, Jan. 6 only deepened the congressional divide, and Americans are more polarized than ever.
In 1858, as the dark clouds of the Civil War were forming, Lincoln delivered his iconic, “House Divided Speech.” In part, he quoted the words of Jesus in Mathew 12:25, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
A divided America will not survive as a nation.
With America is so deeply divided now, is there any hope for unity? Perhaps the first step of that journey can begin with a single day in Arizona.
Is it possible that on Sept. 17 we can all fly the red, white and blue American flag? A symbol of American unity, proclaiming that on this day we are not Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, right wing or left wing, Trumpers or anti-Trumpers? That in honor of our Constitution we commit to this one special day when we are all simply Americans?
Although improbable, should this happen, our Founding Fathers will be applauding Arizona.
David Finley is a retired educator. He served in public education for 43 years, 25 of them in Arizona, including as a social studies teacher and an elementary school principal in Mesa. On Twitter: @dfinleytm.