OP-ED: Looking toward a more perfect Union
Editor’s note: Gryffyn Jones, a home-schooled student in eighth grade, is the first-place winner of the 2022 Law Day Essay Contest, sponsored by the Washington County Bar Association, Bar Foundation and Observer-Reporter. This year’s theme focused on “Toward a More Perfect Union: The Constitution in Times of Change.”
“A more perfect” Union is suggesting that the Union is already perfect. However, it is not perfect. For something to be perfect, it must be under continuous scrutiny and always adjusting itself to fit the “perfect” mold. Flexibility can be both positive and negative. Without it, we would have fewer freedoms and rights.
If we look for the meaning of a “more perfect Union” we should compare past examples. The Founding Fathers intended the Constitution to guide future generations toward a Union without conflict. The amendment process that they created allows the Constitution to catch up to current society. Throughout our nation’s history, amendments have been added to respond to the political and social climate. For example, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, as well as authorized Congress to enforce abolition. The two Amendments following it helped to cement newly freed slaves’ rights. Several decades later, the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified. And American society’s conflicted attitudes about the sale of alcohol resulted in the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment (imposing Prohibition) and, fifteen years later, the Twenty-First Amendment (repealing Prohibition).
There is currently division in our country on many different platforms. I believe that if opposing parties could agree on the meaning of the Constitution, perhaps they could solve these divisions and create a healthy relationship. Ultimately, a Union governed by “We the People” will be “more perfect.” And if people found not only the meaning of the Constitution, but also its purpose, they could fulfill its promise and create a more perfect Union.