Last month, Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Constitution made dramatic headline news and their consequences are still unforeseen. Meg Mott, Professor of Politics Emerita, will speak on “Our Dramatic Constitution” Wednesday, July 17, 5:30-6:30 PM at the Morrisville Centennial Library.
Mott’s interactive presentation offers the opportunity for what Mott, also the Putney Town Moderator, calls ‘a Good Clash’ – a constructive exchange of diverging views and ideas. Mott is not a Vermont conservative’s lockstep liberal stereotype of a Putney elected official and college professor. For example, in recent years she has spoken out forcefully in support of the Second Amendment.
Since its inception, the Constitution has been criticized for not doing enough to protect basic freedoms, Mott notes. Even with the addition of the Bill of Rights, slavery persisted.
Abolitionists were divided on whether the highest law in the land could ever be redeemed. After abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison publicly burned the Constitution at a rally in Framingham, Massachusetts, Frederick Douglass rebutted that political strategy, arguing – why surrender these timeless words to the desires of wicked men?
“Once again we are divided on the merits of the Constitution: can it redeem us or is it a convenient cloak for white supremacy? This presentation considers both arguments and then offers a third-way to consider the Constitution,” Mott said.
Neither a divine document nor a tool of elites, the Constitution might also be seen as an invitation to develop the habits of good clash, Mott said.