Quote:
Originally Posted by pucpuggydarinfo
September 17th through 23rd commemorates the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America. Our Constitution, with 4,440 words, is the oldest and shortest written constitution of any government in the world. Founding Father John Adams called it 'the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen,' and George Washington described it as “little short of a miracle.” Learn more about why they felt this way by studying the Constitution. This announcement was provided by the Puc Puggy Chapter, National Society Daughter of the American Revolution.
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Good point. Few Americans know how lucky they actually are to live by the tenets of a document well into its third century of life and with very few changes really since the day of inception.
My wife hails from Thailand, which is ostensibly a democracy governed by a constitution, but the difference is night and day. For one thing it is over 100 pages long, and pretty much indecipherable to an unfamiliar farang such as myself. Not just the flowery prose but trying to make sense out of it is well nigh impossible. For another, if any part of it gets in the way of what the authorities
du jour want (army and royal family)--why, they just change it. Doesn't apparently take much over there to do that. The bottom line is that their constitution for all intents and purposes is a weapon of those who are in charge and want to remain that way. It pretty much says what they want it to say, when they want it to say it.
People get frustrated with ours. But there is a whole lot to be said for nearly 300 years of consistency.