Essay Question: Why is it necessary for us to know and understand the Philippine Constitution?
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Essay Question: Why is it necessary for us to know and understand the Philippine Constitution?
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It is necessary for us to know and understand the Philippine Constitution because it is simple, really. Constitutional issues impact our lives every day. And constitutional knowledge, especially in 2019, has a transformative power that allows young people to understand how they fit into the world around them — and the role civic responsibility plays in American society.
I’ve seen it happen over and over during my dozen years of educating students about American rights and responsibilities rooted in the Constitution.
The Founding Fathers who
gathered in Philadelphia bequeathed to us a representative form of democracy that functions best with an informed citizenry prepared to instruct the government, and not the other way around. Under our Constitution, individual rights are not granted by the government but protected by it. Without a working knowledge of our form of limited self-government, the people – from whom all power and authority emanate – can easily be left outside looking in.
Consider the recent power struggle between President Donald Trump and Congress over declaring a national emergency at the southern border. The result was a congressional rebuke – a rare show of bipartisanship – and a presidential veto. The immigration debate aside, citing a national emergency in order to reallocate funds is a complex constitutional issue.
Unfortunately, the debate was largely fueled by pure emotion, dictated not by constitutional nuances but by one’s feelings about the president. That’s not good enough, and it serves our country poorly.