What makes our Constitution unique in all the world? Its power lies in the ideas from the Age of Enlightenment that people’s rights are granted by their Creator—not by the state—and that the people then grant power to government. Unheard of! All other governments, past and present, rely on a state, a committee, a king or a ruling class to grant rights.

America’s founders, also, believed that a government made up of imperfect people exercising power over other people should possess limited powers. The Constitution is the law book limiting the power of the federal government. And over and over again, our founders warned that eternal vigilance would be required to preserve that freedom for posterity.

When you reread this precious amazing document which only has 4,543 words and the Declaration of Independence, ask “why?”

Why did they think these ideas were so important that they wrote it in a document, signed their names to it and pledged their lives and their fortunes?

Why did they separate powers into three co-equal branches (Executive, Congressional, Judicial) with built-in checks and balances. Why were our founders afraid of the concentration of power?

Why after the entire Constitution was written and finished did our founders go back and add the Bill of Rights? Who’s rights are they?

Why did they write “all men are created equal” as a guiding principle? Why was this ideal so important that we actually fought a civil war and over 1 million soldiers and civilians died or were wounded to try to make this ideal a reality?

Why do we have an electoral college? What is the tyranny of the majority? Why is this concept important to understand?

Worthy things to think about on our nation’s birthday

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