Current Events: The Death of a President: Jimmie Carter

"In our democracy, the only title higher and more powerful than that of president is the title of citizen. It is every citizen’s right and duty to help shape the future legacy of our nation." -Jimmie Carter February 3, 2016, House of Lords Lecture

Sitting in the car as a youth my dad would say the crazy poem “I thought I saw an elephant walking down the street, it wasn’t an elephant it was Jimmie Carter’s feet.”  It was nonsensical, and it made my brother, and I laugh.  When I was born Jimmie Carter was the president.  I obviously did not know or care at the time, but as I got older, it was the man not the president that I grew to respect. 

Carter’s early life was spent in the navy from 1946 to 1953. During his time in the navy, he spent time on the submarine USS Pomfret.  During this time, he was sent to Chalk River, a crippled nuclear reactor in Canada to help with cleanup.  His experience there, being lowered into the radiated area for just 90 seconds to turn a single screw, changed his views on nuclear power.  He was released in 1953 to return home after his father’s death and take over the family peanut business.

Jimmie Carter’s early political career was marked by time in his state senate and as the governor of his home state of Georgia.  During his time in the senate Carter supported John F. Kenedy but remained relatively quiet on the issues of segregation and civil rights.  This remained true through his gubernatorial campaign where he worked to seek out the votes of both black constituents and the segregationists.  But when Carter took office in 1971, his speech was an indication of his true feelings toward segregation. "The time for racial discrimination is over" Carter stated.  Many of the segregationist constituents who had supported him felt betrayed. 

Carter’s presidency had mixed results.  He established himself as a peacekeeper.  Using his strong belief in human rights Carter called out the Soviet Union, paving the way for the fall of the Soviet state. Carter worked to rearm NATO and bolstered the US troops boosting the American NATO forces to 300,000.  Carter capitalized on the civil rights provisions of the Helsinki Accord; his strong human rights stance brought the necessary hope to carry communist countries forward to Democracy.  Carter also ordered the CIA to smuggle books about democracy into the Soviet Union.

In the US, his Domestic policies were also impressive.  Carter was faced with an energy crisis and a strongly fluctuating economy.  Carter’s creation of the Department of Energy caused the start of energy management as we know it today.  The energy bill that eventually passed included the deregulation of natural gas, fixed a difference in price between interstate and intrastate gasoline prices, and gave tax credits for decreased energy use and reduced use of fossil fuels.  Many of these ideas survive to this day.  During Carter’s administration the airlines were deregulated removing pricing regulations from the government and allowing pricing and flight routes to be set by airlines.  The FAA would remain the main oversight when it came to safety.

Carter was the first to propose a Universal Health Care plan.  He planned to create a comprehensive federal health care system. The plan did not pass the house. 

Carter also created the Department of Education as a cabinet level position.  He believed that education was too important to be left to many different organizations.  During his presidency he also expanded the Head Start program. 

Carter invited LGBTQ individuals to the white house to discuss federal policy regarding ending employment discrimination.  Also, under Carter United States Foreign Service lifted its ban on gays in service.

In the Camp David Accords, Carter negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel.  Egypt recognized Israel and elected government was formed on the West Bank.  This was huge positive for the area and ushered in peace for the area.

Over the course of his presidency Jimmie Carter proved a strong diplomat with a solid understanding of world affairs.  The last year of his presidency was marred by the Iranian hostage crisis.  In 1979 a group of Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran.  After failing to negotiate the release of the prisoners and an attempt to free them with military action, Carter did not win a second term.

It was after his Presidency that Carter became a strong humanitarian.  Forming the Carter foundation, Jimmie Carter took on hundreds of humanitarian projects both at home and abroad.  Carter’s humanitarian work focused solely on fighting for peace and monitoring and maintaining democracy across the world.  His organization defends human rights and equality for young girls and women. The Carter Foundation also works to combat the effects of global warming.

Carter worked the entire duration of his life after the presidency to bring about the peace he believed our world was capable of.  In 2002 Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for, "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development". (Nobel Prize.org, 2002) In his speech, Jimmy reminded us of all of how important people are and how important it is to protect and care for each other.  

“We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes — and we must.” - Jimmy Carter, Nobel Lecture

When Jimmy Carter died on December 29, 2024, He left behind him after years of hard work a legacy.  It is a legacy that at 100 years old he protected until his last breaths.  He has left for us a legacy of waging peace, not with guns, but with words and actions.  It is a legacy of a deep and abiding love for democracy and his country.  Jimmy Carter is often described as a poor president, but no one will ever mistake him for a poor man.  Today December 9, 2025, is the first national holiday in honor of Jimmy Carter.  I feel certain the man himself would be humbled.  I also know that he deserves our remembrance.  I only hope that as time progresses, we can follow his amazing legacy. Instead of running I hope we can all strive to fill the shoes on “Jimmy Carter’s Feet.”  Goodbye Mr. President.

 

The Nobel Peace Prize 2002. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2025. Fri. 10 Jan 2025. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2002/summary/

All quotes are taken from the Carter center website.  Please visit: The Carter Center | Waging Peace, Fighting Disease & Building Hope

Current Events: School Shootings; Madison, Wisconsin; Part 2 The Psychology of a School Shooter

If you ask most people why there are school shootings, they will give you one of two answers: guns or psychological issues.  Both answers hold weight.  I intend to break both down and look at some of the ways that teachers, police officers and governmental officials can combat these issues.  

Psychology is defined by Mirriam Webster as the mental or behavioral characteristics of an individual or group.  Psychologists study these characteristics.  Studies on direct school shooters proves difficult as most of them commit suicide or die in their attacks.  In a study conducted by James Densey and Jillian Peterson, of 180 school shooters, the pair were only able to speak to 5 of the individuals in the study.  Other shooters were studied by speaking with family, friends, teachers and other acquaintances. (Warner, 2022)

Densey and Peterson found that school shooters do not go into a school intending to come out.  The main idea behind their acts is suicide. (Warner, 2022) School shooters usually experience childhood trauma.  This builds self-loathing and is often fueled by bullying in school.  The difference between a school shooter and other suicide attempts seems to be the question “who did this?” The shooter externalizes the self-loathing and finds someone to blame; including other students who bullied them, sometimes parents, teachers, or a specific social group.  The shooter goes in with suicidal ideation and has decided the people at the school are the ones to blame for how they feel.  There may also be an element of being seen after feeling as though they are not seen.  Easy access to a gun along with suicidal thoughts, focus on fault and the need to be seen is usually the combination that leads to school shooting.

It is possible to profile a school shooter.  Keep in mind that a criminal profile is better made when you are looking at a specific case and that profiling is not an exact science.  There are some things that we can learn about school shootings from a general profile of a school shooter, giving us a general idea of what most school shooters may look like.  Since Columbine in 1999, most school shooters have been male, middle class, Caucasian students attending or previously attending a suburban school. 

School shooters generally have a tenuous social situation in school.  Shooters are often reclusive, with few friends and defined by teachers and other students as socially awkward.  Many shooters were the subject of peer lead bullying.  Home lives are not necessarily bad, but the shooters have often had adverse childhood experiences.  These events caused trauma in the child’s life.  Sometimes at a very young age these shooters have had a major trauma in their lives, the death of a parent and physical abuse are both examples although there are many other traumas that can later be seen as adverse childhood experiences. (Dowdell, 2021) Bullying and adverse childhood experience can come together to form a child unable to cope in a healthy way with their experiences.  This inability to cope leads to suicidal ideation and in some, it can also lead to a desire to blame someone for the way they feel.  If the person blames the bullies, a teacher or a specific peer group, then they may become a school shooter if they have access to weapons. 

With all this study, it is obvious that one piece of the school shooter equation is psychology.  How do we proceed?  We cannot point to every troubled child and decide they are a school shooter.  School shooters often take to social media to announce their intentions.  Many post pictures of guns and announce on social media intentions to commit violent acts.  If a teen is suspected of adverse behavior, we can keep an eye on their social media accounts. 

Even before that we need to address the issues that the teen is attempting to handle.  Regular discussions and check-ins with teens by a teacher are a good place to start. Contacting parents and letting them know and working out a plan to help the student make strong community connections, and to check and see if the family may need some assistances are all very good suggestions.  Parents can spend regular time with their teens and listen to what they are struggling with.  Keeping an eye on social media accounts is imperative.  These strategies can help identify a student in crisis, and, hopefully, prevent an incident.

The focus of schools should be that of creating a place where children feel respected and are able to learn social interactions and emotional health in a safe and bully-free space.  There should be counselors available and resource officers who can identify and stop bullying behaviors. Anonymous reporting lines can be set up to allow students and staff to report on concerns they may have regarding bullying and potential students in crisis. 

Psychologists should be available to families and students regardless of ability to pay. Regular health screenings should include mental health screening.  Parenting classes and parenting assistance within the community should focus on parents talking to their children regularly, and being aware of friendships that their children hold and changes in the social structure that they live in.  Parents and educators need to be aware of changes in the behavior of their students. 

Creating a space to maintain mental health and well-being is an important piece of the puzzle of school shootings.  From a governmental standpoint psychological treatment should be available to every person in America regardless of socioeconomic status.  Putting psychologists and counselors into schools in the spaces where students are most vulnerable is a big part of maintaining youth mental health.  Having mental health professionals available in settings where students are on a regular basis makes interactions with these adults normal and students are more likely to seek them out.  Regular training regarding what to look for in troubled teens is also necessary for teachers and, whenever possible, parents.  Encouraging and supporting parents as a community is imperative, this includes both monetarily and emotionally. 

If we are going to stop school shootings at their source, then as a country we need to acknowledge the psychological piece.  Providing psychological care for everyone who needs or wants it should be the highest priority.  Helping to boost community support for parents and teachers should be the norm in each community.  Resource officers and psychological support should be available in every school.  Protecting our children starts with maintaining the mental health of everyone.

 

Dowdell, E. B., Freitas, E., Owens, A., & Greenle, M. M. (2022). School shooters: Patterns of adverse childhood experiences, bullying, and social media. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 36(4), 339–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2021.12.004

Merriam-Webster. (2024). America’s most trusted dictionary. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Warner, Melanie. (2022, May 27). Two professors found what creates a mass shooter. will politicians pay attention? - politico. Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/27/stopping-mass-shooters-q-a-00035762 

The Constitution: The Preamble

 “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The preamble of the Constitution is the part we all learn to quote in school.  It is the opening paragraph to Democracy as we know it in the United States.  The Preamble is only 54 words.  But what is the Preamble?  What is its significance?

The Preamble imparts three central themes.  The first is that the people are the owners of the power in the United States Democracy.  This is very important.  It is the basis for our right to vote, our right to question our leaders, our right to hold an opinion about the workings of the government.  The Preamble tells us immediately in the first paragraph that this is in the top three most important things in the constitution.

It introduces broadly how the constitution is “ordained and established.”  What does that mean? According to the Miriam Webster Dictionary, ordained means to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law.  From the same source, Establish means to institute (something, such as a law) permanently by enactment or agreement. The Preamble declared with the use of these two words that it was the law of the land. 

The final theme is the intent of the writers for the document it prefaces to be a lasting document.  Indeed, the Constitution has lasted 248 years. Keep in mind that the idea was a "living" document that could change and grow as the country changed.

At the time of the drafting of the Constitution, Preambles were common in legal documents. The idea was to sum up the purpose of the document to come.  In this case the founding Father’s wanted to state the most important reasons for writing the laws that followed, “, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.”  The previous governing document, The Articles of the Confederation, was insufficient to establish a unifying government with the proper checks and balances.  The Preamble would need to explain the necessity of the updated document.

There were six purposes for the Constitution according to the Preamble.  The first is to “Establish Justice”. In the context of the Preamble the founders believed that we should promote the general welfare of all citizens.  This was the piece of the Preamble that announced the intention for all people to be treated fairly and equally under the law.  Many amendments to the Constitution have been added to ensure that this purpose remains current. 

The next goal was to “insure domestic tranquility.” This was meant to ensure peace and order in the United States.  Today it is seen as the Preamble’s intent to protect our rights to peaceful protest and assembly.  It points to our right to question and protest our government, an important condition of our freedom. 

“Provide for defence” is a phrase meant to impart the need for the Federal government to coordinate efforts to defend the country against foreign attacks.  This meant the formation of a national army for defense against foreign powers.  But as seen by the diplomatic efforts of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, it also meant creating strong positive relationships with foreign powers.

“Promote the general Welfare” means the right of citizens to maintain peace, health, morality and safety.  This does not mean that the government gets to dictate what morality means for each of its citizens as individuals.  It means that the overall good of all or most of its citizens will be considered. 

“Blessings of Liberty” means the right of every citizen to the preservation of rights and freedoms.  Many have pointed to the use of the word “blessings” as proof that the Constitution had Christian origins.  This is not the case.  The meaning of blessings in this context is defined by the Miriam Webster Dictionary as a thing conducive to happiness or welfare.  Early Americans who had come to America in search of religious freedom believed that the right to religious freedom was so important that they added it to the very first amendment to the constitution. 

The Preamble, while not used on its own to create constitutional precedent, laid out the purpose of the most important document in the United States.  These six reasons for the framing of the Constitution form the basic validation for what Americans believe when they speak of democracy.  While the Preamble is often memorized it is rarely broken down and even less understood.  Its importance is sorely underappreciated. This opening paragraph of our freedom and democracy is a powerful one.

Congress.gov. (n.d.). Legal effect of the preamble | constitution annotated | congress.gov | library of Congress. Constitution Annotated Analysis and Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/pre-3/ALDE_00001235/

Merriam-Webster. (2024). America’s most trusted dictionary. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Current Events: School Shootings; Madison, Wisconsin Part 1

 No, I do not know more than any of you about the shooting in Madison, Wisconsin at the Abundant Life Christian School, but I do know that this school shooting is the 83^rd in 2024.  (Matthews, 2024) This shooting was rare because the suspect is female.  In most mass shootings, the suspect is male.  Since 1981 there have only been four shootings like this one in which the shooter has been female. (Smith, 2024)  Her gender does not change the facts, there are 2 dead, 2 in critical condition and several more with minor injuries because of a gun nestling in the hands of a child.  School shootings have become so common that they barely make us turn our heads.  Let’s look at a few of the school shootings that have taken place in recent years.

On April 16, 2007, at 7:15 am a shooter* stood in a dormitory on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and fired his gun at a female and male killing both.  The police, suspecting domestic violence, pursued the female victim’s boyfriend. Meanwhile, the shooter visited the post office and mailed a rambling videotape about wealthy “brats” and photos of himself wielding a gun to NBC News.  After his visit to the Post Office the shooter returned to campus with a 9-millimeter handgun, a 22-caliber handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and proceeded to lock several doors in a classroom building.  Then he went from classroom to classroom shooting people before taking his own life ten minutes later.  In all 27 students and 5 faculty members were killed in the Virginia Tech massacre. The shooter was a loner with a history of mental problems. 

The victims of the Virginia Tech Shooting were: Ross A. Alameddine, Christopher James Bishop, Brian R. Bluhm, Ryan Christopher Clark, Austin Michelle Cloyd, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Kevin P. Granata, Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, Caitlin Millar Hammaren, Jeremy Michael Herbstritt, Rachael Elizabeth Hill, Emily Jane Hilscher, Jarrett Lee Lane, Matthew Joseph La Porte, Henry J. Lee (Henh Ly), Liviu Librescu, G.V. Loganathan, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, Lauren Ashley McCain, Daniel Patrick O’Neil, Juan Ramon Ortiz-Ortiz, Minal Hiralal Panchal. Daniel Alejandro Perez Cueva, Erin Nicole Peterson, Michael Steven Pohle, Jr., Julia Kathleen Pryde, Mary Karen Read, Reema Joseph Samaha, Waleed Mohamed Shaalan, Leslie Geraldine Sherman, Maxine Shelly Turner, Nicole Regina White.**  Thirty-two in total.  There were also 23 injuries sustained.  As of early 2024, Virginia Tech still stood as the deadliest school shooting in the United States.

In Uvalde, Texas, the shooter shot his 66-year-old Grandmother in the face, injuring her, and fled in his truck.  The shooter crashed his truck outside Robb Elementary School a short distance away.  After leaving the truck he entered the school through a back door.  Barricading himself into the fourth-grade classroom, around 11:30 am he began to shoot his AR-15 style rifle, killing 21 people all but 2 of them fourth grade students. The attack lasted 40 minutes, finally ending when police managed to break open the door and kill the shooter.  A week before, just after his birthday the shooter had legally purchased two AR-15 style rifles.  Just a half hour before the shooter began sending Facebook messages declaring his intent.  The last, sent 15 minutes before shooting began, stated that he planned to shoot up an elementary school.

The victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting were: Makenna Lee Elrod, 10, Layla Salazar, 11, Maranda Mathis, 11, Nevaeh Bravo, 10, Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10, Xavier Lopez, 10, Tess Marie Mata, 10, Rojelio Torres, 10, Eliahna “Ellie” Amyah Garcia, 9, Eliahna A. Torres, 10, Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10, Jackie Cazares, 9, Uziyah Garcia, Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10, Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10, Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10, Irma Garcia, 48, Eva Mireles, 44, Amerie Jo Garza, 10, Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, 10, Alithia Ramirez, 10. Twenty-one were killed, 19 fourth grade students and two teachers.

On February 14, 2018, a shooter, who had been expelled in 2017 for “disciplinary reasons” and had been noted as a potential risk to student safety entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  In his black duffel bag, he carried a legally purchased AR-15 and magazines.  Spotted when he reached the school, no one issued a “code red” announcing his presence.  The shooter stopped in a stairwell to retrieve his weapon.  Chris McKenna, a 15-year-old at the time, saw him.  The shooter told him to leave because “Things are going to start getting messy.” Outside, Chris found Aaron Feis a school security Monitor. The monitor took him to a place 500 feet away and returned to the school.   Meanwhile, the shooter opened fire on the first floor, in 2 minutes, 11 people were dead and 13 were injured. On the second floor, he fired and did not hit anyone.  When he reached the third floor he would shoot his final 6 victims.  Reaching the teachers' lounge, he set up a bipod and began to shoot out a window attempting to snipe at fleeing people.  Fortunately, hurricane proof glass foiled this plan. Just 7 minutes after entering the building and four minutes after shooting began 17 lay dead.  The shooter ditched his gun in a stairwell and escaped by blending in with escaping children.  He was caught after getting a drink at Walmart and heading to McDonald’s.

The names of the victims in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting are: Jaime Guttenberg, Gina Montalto, Nicholas Dworet, Meadow Pollack, Aaron Feis, Chris Hixon, Scott Beigel, Alaina Petty, Peter Wang, Martin Duque, Joaquin Oliver, Alyssa Alhadeff, Carmen Marie Schentrup, Alex Schachter, Helena Ramsey, Cara Loughran, Luke Hoyer. Find photos and overviews of the victims here: These are the victims killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting - WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale.  Seventeen students and faculty in total.  There were seventeen injuries sustained.

I chose the above school shootings because they are at every level of education, grade school, high school and college.  In the three shootings there are a total of 60 victims dead and another 40 injured.  School shooters do not discriminate by age, socioeconomic status, race or as we have seen in the most recent shooting religious affiliation.  In a study in 2012 showing the numbers of school shootings by country America had the largest number of school shootings in the world at 288 in total with the next closest being Mexico with 8 school shootings.  Since 2008 CNN has tracked the number of school shootings yearly.  The anomaly was 2020 during the pandemic where there was a sharp decline in school shootings.  Since 2020 there has been an increase in school shootings year over year. This year, as of this blog, there have been 83 school shootings. (Matthews, 2024) That is roughly one shooting every 4 and a half days. 

Sarah***, now 22, remembers keenly what it was like just a few years ago being in school and preparing for active shooter situations.  “We were told to run, if we needed to, we had to remember in each class where we were supposed to meet, far away from the school so that there was no danger of a big group of kids being in one place for a shooter to pick off.”  Sarah also states that she remembers her science teacher “explaining the heaviest object and the sharpest object in the room.  She also taught us how to use the safety shower to make the floor slippery and how to wedge a chair under the doorknob so that a shooter couldn’t enter.” Another teacher of Sarah’s had bought an object heavy enough to break one of the windows facing outside the school so they could escape. 

Remembering a situation where an active shooter was near her school and the school locked down as a result, Sarah recalls the terror of being separated from her brother who attended the same school.  She also remembers her teacher explaining to them where to step if they had to crawl into the false ceiling to escape. 

Sarah also has the perspective of a preschool teacher.  When she was teaching preschool, there was an active shooter nearby and the kids were put in their classrooms. Teachers had to keep very young children as quiet as possible.  Plans were made to bring the largest cars around and pass children out the window to get them away if it became necessary. 

These terrors occur every day for children and teachers in school today.  Active shooter drills are regular occurrences along with storm and earthquake drills.  Bullet proof backpacks are sold in the United States and go on sale at the beginning of each school year.  Children are taught how to use them by frightened parents.  Parents who cannot homeschool their children hold their breath each day for twelve long years as their children head to school, some even longer as they drop their students off at dorm rooms for college. 

The stark difference between the numbers in the US and other countries may seem like a puzzle.  Adam Lankford, an associated professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama, worked to shed some light on the differences in mass shootings between us and other countries.  In the United State people are more likely to die of mass shootings at work or at school in other countries these events usually take place near military installations.  In American incidents, the shooter usually has more than one weapon while across the world, shooters generally have only one weapon (Christensen, 2017).

One thing that is true is that in the United States police are better prepared. The average number of deaths in the US from a mass shooting is 6.87 per incident while the number is 8.8 due in part to a lack of training and response time by police in other countries (Christensen, 2017). This should not be viewed as positive, training in the US is necessary, while in other countries this type of incident is rare.

The United States has more guns than any other country in the world.  One third of Americans say that someone in their home owns a gun.  More restrictive gun laws do make a difference.  In Australia four mass shootings between 1987 and 1996 prompted parliament to pass strict gun ownership laws. In the years since, Australia has not had a single mass shooting incident. (Christensen, 2017) Psychological factors play a role in mass shootings.  Many mass shooters in America are mentally ill in some way.  Bullying is also a factor.  Many of the mass shooters in the US have been bullied excessively.

Each of these factors comes together to make the United States continue to have soaring rates of mass shootings.  These numbers are chilling.  In this series we will look at these effects in depth.  For now, we have a major problem.  It is a problem that is causing fear and stress for our children.  Consider the children in this latest school shooting.  If they had a chance, what would they tell us about the horror of the school day on Monday; a school day that was meant to be a fun week of activities before Christmas break. How many more children are going to die in America?  The answer is up to us.

*To give the victims more visibility than the shooters in these cases, I will not use any of the shooter’s names in this blog but call them simply “the shooter.”

**The names of every victim for each school shooting will be named, except in the most recent as they have not been released.

*** Thanks to Sarah who does not wish to give her full name for her comments regarding being a student and a preschool teacher and dealing with gun violence.

 

A&E Television Networks. (2011, April 13). Virginia Tech shooting leaves 32 dead | April 16, 2007. History.com. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/massacre-at-virginia-tech-leaves-32-dead

A&E Television Networks. (2019, February 6). Teen gunman kills 17, injures 17 at Parkland, Florida high school | February 14, 2018. History.com. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/parkland-marjory-stoneman-douglas-school-shooting

Christensen, J. (2017, October 5). Why the US has the most mass shootings. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/27/health/u-s-most-mass-shootings/index.html

Matthews, A. (2024, December 10). School shootings in the US: Fast facts. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/us/school-shootings-fast-facts-dg/index.html

Smith, P. (2024, December 17). Girl accused of Wisconsin school deaths one of few female mass shooting suspects. MSN. https://www.msn.com/en-us/public-safety-and-emergencies/health-and-safety-alerts/girl-accused-of-wisconsin-school-deaths-one-of-few-female-mass-shooting-suspects/ar-AA1w1UWy?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Spagat, E., Vertuno, J., & Bleiberg, J. (2022, June 3). Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas School. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-44a7cfb990feaa6ffe482483df6e4683

The Constitution

 I am going to begin this Blog by taking an in-depth look at the constitution.  I will take it one piece at a time and break it down from the preamble to the 27^th amendment.  I am going to do this in order by section and by amendment when I reach them. 

It is our duty as Americans to know what the Constitution means, what the writers meant, and what the correct interpretation of it is.  Today I am going to go into a bit of history.  The primary authors of the constitution were Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.  The three men were the main writers, but it was a full convention of 55 delegates in 1787 who drafted the concepts and ideas of our constitution.  These men were tasked with writing a document which upheld the ideals that the revolution had been fought for but also would create stronger federal government that could withstand infighting among states and the pressures of operating on the international stage. 

Madison wrote the initial proposal for the Constitution, proposed the separations of the branches of the government, and set forth the idea of the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan is the plan that separated the legislature into two separate houses.  Madison contributed heavily to the drafting of the Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution designed to guarantee the Rights of Individuals and Limit the Powers of the Federal Government.

Hamilton was an outspoken Member of the delegation and believed that the Government needed to be strong enough to address any problems that may arise in the United States.  For this reason, he was a strong supporter of a strong Central Government.

Jay’s importance lay in his work to convince people that the strong central government was necessary to hold the country together.  He and Hamilton both came from New York and were outspoken delegates.

The three men worked together to pen the Federalist Papers.  The essays were used to persuade people to support the new Constitution.  Without the Federalist Papers, the Constitution would very likely have never been ratified.

Benjamin Franklin brought his genius at compromise to the Meetings and helped to bridge the many differences of opinion.  His great skill helped to craft the many compromises necessary to achieve a comprehensive document.

While those mentioned above certainly made major contributions to the writing of the Constitution, it is necessary to remember that all the members of the Constitutional Convention contributed to the document.  Without the input and time put in by every individual, the Constitution would not be the founding document of our nation.

The Constitution was not ratified until June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the last state to ratify the Law of the Land.  On December 7 of 1787, the first five states ratified the Constitution.  These states were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut.

Several states opposed the Constitution.  Massachusetts, and several other states to lesser degrees, did not want to ratify the constitution without the expressed protection of basic rights such as religion, freedom of speech and the press.  A compromise was reached whereby the constitution would be amended immediately after ratification to include these important items. Upon this compromise Maryland, Massachusetts and South Carolina ratified. 

On March 4, 1789, the United States under the newly minted constitution began operation. The following July New York and Virginia ratified and joined the Union. 

On September 25, 1789, the new Congress adopted 12 amendments to the constitution, 10 of which were ratified by the states in 1791. In November of 1789, the state of North Carolina became the 12^th state to ratify the constitution. 

Rhode Island still held misgivings regarding the Constitution.  The state was against federal control of currency and compromises on the issue of slavery.  They finally ratified on May 29, 1790, and became the last of the 13 original colonies to officially join the United States. 

Since the 13 original states, 37 states have been added to the United States and 27 amendments have been added to the constitution.  The Constitution has been the basis for every law in the United States.  The operation of our government runs as it does because of our Constitution. 

But what does it say?  Why does it cause so much controversy?  Is it up for interpretation or is there a hard and fast rule for reading this amazing document.  Stay tuned.

A&E Television Networks. (n.d.). U.S. Constitution ratified | June 21, 1788. History.com. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-constitution-ratified