#VelshiBannedBookClub: The U.S. Constitution

A special edition of the "Velshi Banned Book Club" features a work that has sparked ferocious and unrelenting debate since it was first written. A work of writing that has been quoted and misquoted for generations. A work of writing that has been challenged for removal not by Florida or Texas, but by a former U.S. President. A work of writing, at once beautiful, and the most weaponized in our nation's history. A work of writing that proves how powerful words can be. The United States Constitution. Penned in 1787 in the same Pennsylvania building in which the Declaration of Independence was written, the U.S. Constitution lays out the framework and constraints for our government. The Bill of Rights was then ratified in 1791, a document created after some signatories voiced the need for a clear description of individual rights. After years of history lessons and episodes of School House Rock, it’s easy to forget that the Constitution was nothing short of an audacious act of political radicalism in its time. Hardly any written Constitutions existed at the time for the Founding Fathers to study. And now – centuries later, in an America that bears little resemblance to the one the Founders knew – the document is even more controversial. At its core, the current debate over the Constitution is over words. There are two camps – those who believe the Document is living and breathing and those who believe the Constitution should be read precisely as its drafters wrote and intended. Our nation hangs in the balance of those two starkly different interpretations of the same text.Aug. 19, 2023