WEST BARNSTABLE – Cape Cod Community College Honored Constitution Day with a forum at their West Barnstable campus yesterday featuring an actor portraying former President John Adams.
Constitution Day, which was technically on Sunday, is held each year on the anniversary of the signing of the constitution on September 17th, 1787.
The event was designed as a creative and informative way to explain the role of the document representing the supreme law of the United States while also considering the people who actually signed it.
John Adams is considered to be the father of the Massachusetts Constitution, which was written several years before the U.S. Constitution.
“It is sort of a model for the U.S. Constitution and he’s quite an authority on the subject,” said Mark Forest, a Cape Cod Community College adjunct professor.
Adams told the crowd gathered at the free event in the Lorusso Technology Building that “The government is yours, it is your government. You elect the people and they have a responsibility to each citizen.”
He informed the group that he had just returned from a diplomatic mission in France when he was asked to take part in the continental congress, where some 250 men were debating the document.
The process took more than a year to complete, with Adams taking credit for the decision to develop two branches of the Legislature as well as an executive branch. He also developed the concept of a strong judiciary.
Forest said that it is important to remember the contributions of our founding fathers, “Adams is considered one of the most influential founding fathers. Strong believer of no taxation without representation,” said Forest, “He was instrumental in the concept of three branches of government.”
Forest said the values and activism of the nation’s people has ensured the constitution’s survival.
“When you look at what’s happening around the world today – the challenges that other democracies are facing – you realize what a remarkable achievement it is to not only have created a document like this, but to have it sustain and be with us for over 230 years,” Forest said.
The Adams reenactor told the crowd that is the obligation of Americans to protect the rights afforded in the four page, 238 year old document, “With every liberty we have comes a responsibility.
By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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