I constantly hear all the constitutional scholars on social media explaining the law. According to many of those scholars the constitution is outdated, those writing that constitution didn’t know the future. They couldn’t envision what the future may hold. Yet, those same folks claim just about everything you can think of is covered in that document. It’s in the constitution!

Well, the original constitution was amended, almost immediately after ratification, what we call the bill of rights. The fear being, the government would have too much power over individual rights. Just three and a half years later the 11th amendment was added. Know what that did? Restricted individual rights of citizens to sue a state they didn’t live in.

Five years later the 12th amendment comes along reforming the electoral college. The electors now are required to cast separate ballots for the president and vice president. That came about as the result of a tie in 1800 between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Its purpose was to clarify things.

The next three amendments codified our original statement that all men are created equal. We call them the civil rights amendments. Number 16 gave the federal government the power to tax us all! Others followed, mostly procedural changes. Then in 1971 the voting age was lowered to 18. The last amendment, passed in 1992, delays congressional pay raises. It doesn’t stop congress from voting itself a raise, just delays when they will get it.

In my view, the constitution of the United States, was the rule book for government. It explained how things were to be done. The original document was the result of compromises, deals made, between the “representatives” from the various colonies. They weren’t elected by any popular vote, they were chosen by state legislatures. Out of 70 chosen, fifty-five attended.

As I mentioned earlier, almost immediately after ratification the rules were getting changed. At first the rules protected the citizens, later not so much. Amendments are nothing more than saying, well this is really what I meant.

Laws establish the moral code of a nation. We determined to not officially base our laws, our moral code on any one religious belief or practice. That’s why the first amendment was added, to clarify that. We were now saying, we believe God ordained this nation, but we won’t say that out loud! It’s an amendment to morality.

All the major changes, amendments, to the constitution, to criminal and civil law, are modifications of morality. Whatever is allowed by a society, is considered moral by that society. The larger the society, the more disagreements concerning that morality will arise.

That’s the problem with diversity, it encourages change. Sounds like it should be a good thing, but it is the very thing that will bring about the collapse of a society. Belief is far stronger than fact! Forcing people to change their beliefs will ultimately result in rebellion.

There is a fine line between diversity and progress. It really does depend upon which side of that line you stand. Are you willing; accepting of an amendment to your personal moral code? If you are, that’s progress. If you are not, that’s where rebellion festers.