I grew up in Louisville (you pronounce the "S"), Ohio, which Pres. Dwight Eisenhower designated, "Constitution Town, USA" after Louisville resident Mrs. Olga Weber wrote to him asking, "We have a day set aside to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence; why not one to celebrate the ratifying of the Constitution?" So September 17 (the anniversary of the ratification) became Constitution Day in the US, and Louisville became Constitution Town. There is a parade and the crowing of a Constitution Queen every year. I marched in it when I was a Cub Scout. (Never competed for Queen, though, even though I had long, pretty hair.)

My 2007 calendar has a little flag in the corner of the square for September 17, but it calls the day "Citizenship Day," which I think draws attention away from the significance of the day as one of remembrance of the ratification of the Constitution, which was one of the most self-directed and collectively courageous political moves in history. (It also, incidentally, obliquely discounts the contribution of the Iroquois Confederation to the US's Constitutional principles, thereby neatly invisibilizing the First Peoples once again.)

Yeah, September 17 is a neat day on which to gain US citizenship, but it's really so much more than that. Why shrink the importance of the day by making it more specific in scope, instead of expanding it by using it as a jumping-off point for championing democratic/republican principles?

As I've often said when Bush & Co. talk about an Iraqi constitution: "A constitution! Why don't we try that??"

(Who needs habeas corpus anyway, right?)