The 230th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution was Sunday, Sept. 17 and events celebrating will take place both at Texas A&M and in the Bryan-College Station community.
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Education established Sept. 17 as Constitution and Citizenship Day to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Texas A&M will continue to honor Constitution Day through the month of September with events throughout the community, including an exhibit at Larry J. Ringer Library in College Station presented by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The Daughters of American Revolution are a 125 year old organization consisting of over 900,000 women who are descendants of patriots that served in the American Revolution. With events all throughout the month of September, Leonara Owre, vice regent of the La Villita Chapter of the Daughters, said that members of the organization are dedicated to promote awareness of the Constitution.
“A lot of people aren’t aware that it was the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution who petitioned Congress to establish a Constitution Week,” Owre said. “The official documents of our nation, especially those that have governed us for several years are things we are very passionate about. We want to preserve the importance of these documents. We have a Constitution as of Sept. 17, that was signed 230 years ago. That is huge. This document is still in operation.”
To continue the commemoration of Constitution Day, Communication Director for the Bush Presidential Library David Anaya said they were honored to give out copies of the Constitution to their visitors.
“Constitution Day allows us to remember how important our government is,” Anaya said. “The American society really encourages people to live by what the Constitution stands for. It’s just been so important how for 200 plus years, it’s still standing. Many other nations look at our Constitution as something that should be revered.”
On Monday, Sept. 18, Aggie Agora will host their second annual Constitutional Convention led by political science professor Joe Ura and communication professor Jennifer Mercieca. Mercieca said that this event was created to help students think critically about the Constitution and learn about the difficulty of constitutional revision.
“The attendees will have the opportunity to think for themselves about what is good, bad and needs to be changed about the constitution,” Mercieca said. “​Ultimately we all benefit when we understand how the government is designed to function.”