History -- pick and choose at our peril

 The words we choose to embrace -- or reject -- as a society have a profound impact on not only on the way we view the world but on the choices we make because of those views. Yesterday in the House of Representatives the Constitution of the United States was read aloud. That's an admirable thing to do since so many have so little interaction with this pivotal document. However, there was debate about which version of the Constitution should be read. And there is ongoing debate about how to apply the Constitution to our society, which is vastly different from what it was 9/17/1787 ... the day that 42 of 55 delegates signed the document and created "a more perfect Union."

Should it be read in its original version? Should the original text be altered to reflect later amendments? There was a predictable, but somewhat surprising split, with Republicans preferring the edited version and Democrats preferring the original version with amendments. How do the versions differ? The edited version alters the original text based on the amendments that came later. For instance, in the original document (Art. 1, Sec. 2), representation and taxation were determined by "adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons." In other words, a slave would be counted as 3/5 of a whole person. In the edited version that would disappear because of the 14th Amendment. If only the amended version was read, a critical part of our national history, that demonstrates the validity of designing the Constitution as a document subject to amendment by the people, would be lost.

Representative Donna Edwards eloquently expressed the importance of full social memory: “Our Constitution is both a strong foundation and a living document that has changed as our times and understandings have changed. I am disappointed that we did not come together to read the Constitution in its entirety to embrace both the full vision of our founders and their fallibility as reflected in the original content and the amendments that have strengthened this great nation. As an African American woman, it is through these amendments and this history that my experience is captured in its entirety. It is imperative that we remember the purpose and interpretation enshrined to a government by the people, for the people.” (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2011/01/elijah_cummings_constitution.html)