the Bill of Rights was ratified and went into effect.
We do not honor this day as we do Constitution Day, the day the Convention accepted the document that established our system of government.
We should.
George Mason would not sign the original because it lacked a Bill of Rights, and after all, he was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776.
Virginia might well not have ratified the Constitution without a commitment to add a Bill of Rights.
Those rights have been essential to our liberty, to our moving from a limited republic to a more expansive democracy.
We should remember - because we are at risk of those rights disappearing.
The Sixth Amendment right to trial has been denied to those accused of terrorism, including American citizen Jose Padilla for a long period.
The Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate has been curtailed by the current Supreme Court.
Freedom of the Press is under attack by use of the Espionage Act.
And it is not clear that we have any longer any meaningful protection against search under the Fourth Amendment.
The Founders never anticipate that corporate entities would be given protections intended for human beings.
They chose to say persons, not citizens, a point many who are anti-immigrant seem to forget.
A portion of our populace willfully misinterprets the provisions on freedom of religion to try to deny free exercise to those religions they oppose and to demand aspects of establishment despite the First Amendment prohibition - and yes, the establishment clause was long ago incorporated against the states.
Gut the Bill of Rights, and whatever we have, it will not be a true democracy, government of, by, and for the people.
In theory I still teach American Government. But if the Bill of Rights is gutted, in effect even if the text is unamended, what then is there to teach?