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The Bill of Rights, a la Shmoop: If the Bill is wrong, I don’t want to be Right.
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights.
This is a bill that actually won’t give your parents a headache.
Things like “Freedom of Speech,” “The Right to Bear Arms,” and “Freedom from
Cruel and Unusual Punishment”… … were considered among the ten most important
rights we could have. Little known fact: the right to arm bears
just missed the cut. But a whole lot has changed since the late
1700s. We have rights for women and minorities, overpopulation,
pollution, and reality TV. If you were in charge of writing a new bill
of rights today… …what would you insist on including?
The Constitution never specifically mentions children’s rights?
Should there be something about that? Or maybe something should be taken out?
After all, it’s a very different world than it was when we had 13 states and almost everybody
lived on a farm. You’re in charge… so go wild.
Add some rights, take some out, scrap the whole thing and turn us into a fascist dictatorship…
Wait… don’t do that, actually. Fascist dictatorships are awful.
Thomas Jefferson once suggested that the constitution be re-written every 20 years so it could stay
in tune with the society. Well, it’s been over 200 years…
..so by that account we should have had more than 10 new constitutions already.
It’s all on your shoulders. Come up with a new Bill of Rights.
What do you think should stay put? And what do you think we should get rid of?
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
As we all know, Moses came down the mountain holding two large stone tablets, upon which
were inscribed the Bill of Rights. Wait… we might need to check our notes…