Who can guess what exciting national holiday is coming up? Anyone? Bueller? Come on, people, it’s obviously Constitution Day. Tomorrow, Sept. 17, marks the anniversary of the signing of our constitution back in 1787. Some people might be confused about this holiday; many of you might not even know it existed. Not only does it exist, but our government has recently passed legislation which mandates that all “educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required to hold” some sort of program relating to the constitution every Sept. 17.
Essentially, this means that every university (since most receive federal funding in some way or another) must create programming for a holiday that probably 99 percent of its students aren’t even aware of. Not only that, but the government is offering no additional money or reimbursement for this programming, meaning that whatever programming the schools create must be taken away from some other project or department within the school to help us observe this unforgettable national holiday.
For this year’s much-anticipated Constitution Day, Washington University is bringing in former Congressman Dick Gephardt to speak to the student body on the eve of the opening of his new Institute for Public Service. One would imagine that Mr. Gephardt’s speaking fee is (understandably) not cheap. The school certainly seems to be doing its best to observe this extremely minor holiday.
If the government finds this holiday so incredibly important as to require all institutions to observe it, why not at least provide some funding in order to properly celebrate it? Congress seems to be able to find money for everything else (excepting the war in Iraq), from highways to investigating steroids in baseball, so shouldn’t they be able to dig up a few thousand dollars to throw at the big C.D.?
It isn’t entirely clear if this new focus on Constitution Day is some sort of odd, forced patriotism, an effort for greater education about the U.S. government, or strange mix of both. What is clear is that before our government requires us to observe holidays we didn’t even know existed, the least they could do is throw some cash our way. Otherwise, it’s taking money away from places where it’s actually needed and giving it away in the name of the Rodney Dangerfield of U.S. national holidays.