Our Constitution Part One

The above is the opening words of the Constitution. I'm not a constitutional scholar but I play one in this post. When I was growing up we didn't study the constitution in school. One year we spent a whole half year learning the history of Mercer County. But it was cool because we got to go out on field trips, the Essley-Noble museum and to the court house. But, looking back it might have been worthwhile checking in on the document that frames our government. I see you rolling your eyes. Yeah, might be a bit dry.



Someone said once, "There is no soil more adaptive to reform than American soil." Indeed, did you know that there are 27 amendments to the original draft. That means there have been 27 "Aha!" moments when someone said, hey, wait, this might need changing. Some amendments are in-your-face headline grabbing like the first one regarding freedom of speech and the right for groups to hit the street to protest. Funny they didn't think to include this in the first draft. The fourth one seems kind of important, too. It talks about unreasonable search and seizures. But, yeah, if you go through most of them you might begin to doze off. Things about voting, citizenship, term of office and some that are so far over my ability to understand without a jurisprudence degree.

The 21st Amendment would have been pretty damn important to me if I'd been an adult in 1933. Imagine prohibiting beer. Dumbasses. The 26th one allowed me to vote before turning 21. Did you know there are even pending amendments? One is the Equal Righst Amendment that needs only one more state for ratification?Whenever we get a new Supreme Court justice we find out if they interpret the document or consider it changeable.

Slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment but how do we square that with the Constitution's assertion that a black person is only worth 3/5th of a white person. We seem to have grown as a society since that proclamation. Except for Duante Wright, Freddy Gray, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Harris, Phillip White, Tony Robinson, Jerame Reid, Rumain Brisbon, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Dante Parker, Ezell Ford, Michael Brown Jr., John Crawford III, Dontre Hamilton, Matthew Williams, Botham Shem Jean, E.J. Bradford, Jamee Johnson, Antwon Rose, Stephan Clark, Marvin Scott III, Kurt Reinhold, McHale Rose, Xzavier Hill, Frederick Cox, Patrick Warren, Carl Dorsey III, Dolal Idd, Andre Hill, Joshua Feast, Maurice Gordon, Casey Goodson Jr., Rodney Applewhite, A.J. Crooms, Sincere Pierce, Walter Wallace Jr., Marcellus Stinnette. Jonathan Price, Deon Kay, Daniel Prude, Damien Daniels, Dijon Kizzee, Trayford Pellion, David McAtee, Tony McDade, Yassin Mohamed, Fernin Bahe, Sean Reed, Steven Demarco Taylor, Ariane McCree, Terrance Franklin, Miles Hall, Darius Tarver, William Green, Samuel David Mallard, Kwame Jones, De'von Bailey, Christopher Whitfield, Anthony Hill, Eric Logan, Jamarion Robinson, gregory Hill, Jr., JaQuavion Slaton, Ryan Twyman, Brandon Webber, Jimmy Atchison, Willie McCoy, Emantic Bradford, Jr., D'ettrick Griffin, Jemel Roberson, Deandre Ballard, Robert White, Anthony Lamar Smith, Ramarley Graham, manuel Loggins Jr., Trayvon Martin, Wendell Allen, Kendrick McCade, Larry Jackson, Jr., Jonathan Ferrell, Jordan Baker, Laquon McDonald, Charly Keunang, Brendon Glenn, Samuel DeBose, mario Woods, Quintonio LeGuin, Gregory Gunn, Akiel Denkins, Alton Sterling, Philandro Castile, terrance Crutcher, Keith Lamont Scott, Alfred Olango, Danny Ray Thomas, DeJuan Guillory, Patrick Harmon, Julius Johnson, who were all shot dead by police or security officers.

The fact is that it is more dangerous to be a black person in this country.  I am as pro-cop as anyone.  But it is undeniable that police-black confrontations result in more deaths than same situation white-on-white. 

One could make an argument, and a good one, that the Constitution needs to be reformed to say that a black man or boy is a full human in the eyes of American law, police, and in our hearts.