Meg Mott, formerly of Marlboro College, will explore different ways of viewing the U.S. Constitution on Sunday, Jan. 8.
Is the U.S. Constitution to be read as a fixed and immutable document enshrining a white supremacist nation, or should amendments and changing circumstances suggest a more dynamic reading.
Mott will talk on "A Dramatic Constitution" at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. The program is supported by the Vermont Humanities Council's Speaker's Bureau. The talk begins at 2 p.m. This free program, open to the public..
Since its inception, the U. S. Constitution has been criticized for not doing enough to protect basic freedoms. 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 William Lloyd Garrison publicly burned the Constitution at a rally in Framingham, Massachusetts, Frederick Douglass rebutted that political strategy.
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?
Meg Mott will consider both arguments and then offer a third-way to consider the Constitution. Neither a divine document nor a tool of elites, the Constitution might also be seen as an invitation to develop the habits of political engagement through deliberation and adjudication
After twenty years of teaching political theory and constitutional law to Marlboro College undergraduates, Meg Mott has taken her love of argument to the general public. Her award-winning series Debating Our Rights on the first ten amendments brings civil discussions on contentious issues to public libraries and colleges.
The UU Fellowship is located at 108 School St. in Benington. It is handicapped accessible.