Melissa Mitchum Voice of Democracy Essay Carswell, Period One

American History possesses the constant pattern of a few men making the biggest decisions for a society as a whole. Whether these men agree on one thing and disagree on the next, it does not take away the fact that our lives will ultimately be made by ourselves, and who we trust enough to write the future of our history. One document, however, was something entirely else - it was the vision our founding fathers had, the groundwork of America, and the one thing that stands invincible as an argument still; the constitution gives the outline to the functions of our government as they are intended and envisioned to be, creating guidelines for the leaders we put in place for the country we fight so hard to sustain. Although outdated in some cases due to the ever-evolving cultural trends and the fast paced high-demand society we have become, the constitution still represents itself as possibly the most significant doctrine ever established to our nation. While some would consider it irrelevant to modern day politics and procedures, it is anything but. Even though this document was ratified in 1788, the amendments of the Constitution were fashioned to keep up with the struggles and troubles we the people have; thus qualifying our Constitution to still hold applicable to the 21st century, with the bill of rights composing a large portion for this reason. The constitution may not be perfect, it may be "flawed" in contrast to societal changes, and it may be placed on the back burner - mainly for people to create more power for themselves. But it sure is the legal document that if interpreted originally, can preserve our liberties. In the first amendment, civil freedoms are guaranteed to United States citizens. Since the well-known melting pot label of the U.S, this amendment emphasizes the importance of what sets apart America from the many other nations in the world. Among these freedoms, is freedom of religion. Since many immigrants with many different religions have entered the U.S. , the First Amendment protects the government from nominating a religion for the country and gives one the right to practice what his/her

Melissa Mitchum Voice of Democracy Essay Carswell, Period One denomination is. This is amazing to me. We have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to choose to believe that we were created by science, stardust, or God in heaven. We are not entitled to the Church of England like our predecessors were. These opportunities we can both share positive and negative traits with, and impacting would be an understatement. With perspective, comes disagreement for the direction we would like to see our country head toward. Many moral statures come into play throughout the constitution, although we have to keep in mind that it was written for our benefit, not to make a mess out of. These were the values of the people who wrote it. The constitution did not see the Roe v. Wade case coming, or the Aurora, Colorado shooting, when our founding fathers suggested this freedom. With these amendments come responsibilities, and in personal ways we use the laws of our land to determine right and wrong. The second amendment is gun control. We have the rights to bear arms. Now, dispute over this claim is common, whether it was just the militia during the time period that needed the right for weapons, or rather it was every citizen being able to possess a weapon like an insurance policy, just in case anything ever happened. It could protect us from ourselves, and from the government. These amendments were established in order to give people the freedom of being apart from their rulers, so that their leaders were not tyrants, and if worst case ever be, they were prepared. When the Constitution gave us the right to bear arms, it also made us responsible for using them properly. It's not fair of us as citizens to lean more heavily on one side of that equation than on the other. The attempt to limit the free market through which art, religion, and guns flow, is seen as an attacking principle of American individualism. The individual rises and falls based on merit, the American myth goes, and theres nobody to blame or praise but the individual. Its opportunity that America offers, and people are given as much space as possible to be the person theyre destined to become. But this form of Manifest Destiny comes at a price, and often that price is paid in blood, as mass shootings,as mistakes now as American as football on Sundays and Levis

Melissa Mitchum Voice of Democracy Essay Carswell, Period One jeans. These situations though cannot put the entire nation in despair, for it is choice that will contribute to breaking down a society, but it is choice that grants us the opportunity that America rejoices in. The constitution was not written to grant power but to limit it in the grand scheme of things, to put the decisions in the peoples hands. Abraham Lincoln explains, We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. We as Americans have freedom, which I do believe, especially adolescents, take for granted. We are given freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to address sneaky politicians and freedom to rebuttal against those claims. If America is a tree, and a tree gets all of its roots removed, how will the tree continue to grow, with no support? We would be letting someone else artificially grow us, which only leads to the opposite of what America was set out to be. As a country we have defended our freedom, our lives in wars, our families, ourselves, all for the sake of being established upon a principle that we are the creators of our own future. The constitution and its amendments protects us, it protects us from each other, and it protects us from our own government, it protects us from wrongful prosecution, incriminating ourselves, our right to speech, our right to bear arms, our right to freedom of religion. It is the most political blessing we could have.