This has been Constitution Week, Sept. 17-23, . The banner of the Sarah Platt Decker Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution’s is flying over Santa Rita Park and we have a display at the library.

The author of The Constitution Today, Akhil Reed Amar, a professor at Yale, in a recent interview with Lily Rothman in TIME Magazine (Sept. 5), gave this answer to her question on whether the average American understands the Constitution? “Not at all, alas. It’s a shame because it was designed to be read. Here’s an analogy: I like baseball, but baseball’s a little boring unless you’re into it. The Constitution is no more forbidding than baseball, but we have to get into it.”

When asked why he kept three copies of the Constitution in his pocket, he answered, “People died for these words, so we should have the words literally close to our hearts. You should have more than one copy because if someone asks you a question about the Constitution, I think it’s wonderful and democratic if you can give them a copy and you can read it together.”

Let us all read the Constitution and keep in mind what the words mean in the coming months of 2016.

Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America:

“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.”

Remember, you have the right to vote, and staying home and not voting is not exercising that right as promised in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Julie Cordova, Constitution Week chairman

Sarah Platt Decker Chapter, NSDAR

Durango