Bill Of Rights Day

Did you know that there is a day to celebrate the Bill of Rights? Yes, believe it or not, there is a day to celebrate our personal freedoms and the limits of the federal government as noted in the first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution.

Little did I know until I read Ken Herman’s column in the Austin American-Statesman. For those who need to put it on the calendar, it is officially December 15.

I suspect that there won’t be any parades, or any office parties. Hallmark won’t pull out their Bill of Rights cards a month in advance to cash in on the influx of consumers looking for just the right way to celebrate. And worst of all, most people will simply take it for granted – not that December 15 is in fact the official date, but the Bill of Rights in and of itself after 220 years in existence.

We have lost sight of what the Bill of Rights really means anymore. That cannot bode well for the future of this country.

On November 27, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Proclamation 2524 in which he noted -

“The first ten amendments, the great American charter of personal liberty and human dignity, became a part of the Constitution of the United States on the fifteenth day of December, 1791.

“It is fitting that the anniversary of its adoption should be remembered by the Nation which, for one hundred and fifty years, has enjoyed the immeasurable privileges which that charter guaranteed: the privileges of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the free right to petition the Government for redress of grievances.

“It is especially fitting that this anniversary should be remembered and observed by those institutions of a democratic people which owe their very existence to the guarantees of the Bill of Rights: the free schools, the free churches, the labor unions, the religious and educational and civic organizations of all kinds which, without the guarantee of the Bill of Rights, could never have existed; which sicken and disappear whenever, in any country, these rights are curtailed or withdrawn.

“The fifteenth day of December, 1941, is therefore set apart as a day of mobilization for freedom and for human rights, a day of remembrance of the democratic and peaceful action by which these rights were gained, a day of reassessment of their present meaning and their living worth.”

Sure, we can throw around phrases like “freedoms” and “rights” all the time. We may even use them more around election time, when we are reminded of how this legislation is counter to that amendment and how this candidate is true to that amendment. But are we as individuals actively involved in the promotion and protection of those same rights?

In the scope of normal day-to-day existence, we go about our merry way, to and fro, up and down, and never a thought about what all of this really means to us. It might cross our minds if we catch the evening news. When we see other parts of the world on television, we may realize that we have civil liberties and freedoms. But then we’ll go back to our dinner, doing homework or waiting for the next episode of American Idol.

I think FDR had a great idea. Maybe Bill of Rights Day should serve as the sociopolitical version of Thanksgiving, a time to give thanks to the beauty and sanctity of those words that mean so much to what we call freedom.

Many thanks go out to Ken for bringing this to the light of my day – and many thanks to FDR for doing so, 70 years ago today 

Photo credits: kevin dooley