A small but committed group of people gathered outside the Habersham County Judicial Center in Clarkesville on Thursday to listen to a public reading of the U.S. Constitution.
They listened as, one by one, speakers stepped forward to read aloud the 7,591 word document. They read the original document as it was written and signed by America’s Founding Fathers on Sept. 17, 1787 and the subsequent 27 amendments that have been ratified and added to the Constitution over the past 228 years.
Thursday’s non-partisan event was held in observance of Constitution Day. It was hosted by the Mountain Judicial Circuit Bar Association.
A brief history of Constitution Day
Constitution Day is a national, annual observance that began in 2004 after Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) passed a bill designating September 17 as the day for citizens to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution and learn more about it.
The late Sen. Byrd once said, “Our ideals of freedom, set forth and realized in our Constitution, are our greatest export to the world.”
Those gathered Thursday in Clarkesville expressed similar awe at the document that established the U.S. government’s framework and laws.
Powerful document
“It’s a powerful, powerful document that impacts our lives on a daily basis,” Clarkesville attorney and Now Habersham contributor Tricia Hise told the crowd.
Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Chan Caudell says, “Sometimes we forget that it’s the words that are written on that paper that really control and provide how we conduct this democracy.” Attorney Jim Weidner says Constitution Day is a good reminder of that. He stresses, “We’re a country of laws. We’re not a country governed by people, we’re governed by the laws. The people enforce the laws.”
Powerful day
Thursday’s observance proved moving to many.
Mountain Judicial Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge Rusty Smith says he got “chills” hearing the Bill of Rights read aloud. “As lawyers, as judges, we see little pieces of the Constitution, but when you hear the entire document read from beginning to end you realize the majesty and the beauty, the elegance, of this document and how important it is to preserving the way of life that we enjoy in the United States.” Attorney and associate juvenile judge Nichole Carswell adds, “Just hearing those provisions that I repeat so often or that I incorporate into arguments that I make or pleadings that I write, it just really had a big impact on me hearing it all together at one time.”
Judge Caudell called the event “stirring” and says, “It was moving to hear the thought, to hear the words spoken. You can imagine the work that went into producing just a single sentence. It just wasn’t something that was handed down by a king.”
And that is precisely the point.
The document that breathed life into American democracy 228 years ago still breathes life into our government and legal system today. Habersham County Magistrate Judge Gerald Johnson summed it up when he called the U.S. Constitution “the backbone of everything we do here in the judicial system.”
Johnson says he was pleased to be part of Thursday’s public reading and Caudell says he hopes it will become an annual event.
Photos by A.N. Williams
The U.S. Constitution: Words and ideals that built a nation
