Imagine Who We Can Be – Defenders of the United States Constitution
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Our Constitution was signed in Philadelphia at Independence Hall by delegates to the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. That was the same location where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. That revolutionary document spoke of equality, certain inalienable Rights that include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
That vision enshrined in these documents is under attack in ways those of us alive now never thought possible!!
The President’s oath of office is specifically detailed in Article II of the Constitution and requires the President to swear to faithfully execute the office and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.
Supreme Court Justices take two oaths: the Constitutional Oath to support the U.S. Constitution, and the Judicial Oath to faithfully and impartially perform their duties under the Constitution.
The President and six of the nine current Supreme Court Justices are making a mockery of their oaths!!!
The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were unlike any documents that had ever been created in human history.
To fully appreciate the revolutionary ideas of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, I invite you to visit the work of three amazing historians – Ken Burns, Heather Cox Richardson, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
“The America Revolution” by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt premieres on Sunday, November 16, 2025, on PBS. This documentary is a six-part, 12-hour series. Many local PBS affiliates are offering an extended preview. Here is the link to a brief clip of “The American Revolution.” (“The American Revolution: An Inside Look” is the name of the preview I watched.) Burns and his colleagues share so much more about the American Revolution than I had ever learned before.
Heather Cox Richardson, author of Letters from an American, was the guest of Pod Save America on September 7, 2025. Her focus, with the amazing historical perspective she has, is on How We Can Fight Back. The podcast is more than one hour long. If you are impatient, fast forward to the last 10 minutes where she is very hopeful that “when people know what is happening, they can make a difference.” She is optimistic about finding leaders who will make the changes we so desperately need!
Doris Kearns Goodwin is the author of An Unfinished Love Story, A Personal History of the 1960s. Doris and her late husband, Richard Goodwin, delved into the more than 300 boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia he had saved for more than 50 years. She describes their journey as a “voyage of remembrance that brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.”
To conclude this celebration of our Constitution, I invite you to experience What the Constitution Means to Me, an American play by Heidi Schreck. Written in 2017, the play premiered on Broadway in 2019 with Schreck herself in the leading role. You can watch her performance via Amazon Prime.
I invite you to ponder what the Constitution means to you and what you are willing to do to defend it today!
