Winning Essay by Jennifer Barrett

Picture yourself waking up tomorrow being twenty years old and not being able to read.  Pretend you haven’t taken a shower in five days.  Imagine having AIDs or malaria and not knowing.  People like this do exist—in poor countries like Pakistan, Libya, Cambodia, and many more.  The major cause of these problems in third-world countries is their system of government, or lack of.  Along with millions of other Americans, I am blessed to be free; I get to wake up every day worrying about my Physics test, not having time to take a hot shower, or fussing over my runny nose.  I am thankful for these “problems” I face, and I believe that one main cause of my fortuity is that I live in America, the land of the free, under the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitution of the United States provides democracy and protection to all of its citizens.  Regardless of gender, age, race, or lifestyle the Constitution gives rights to each individual.  At school, work, or in the public, every shape and size of person has the same privileges and liberties as the next.  In the U.S. every adult male and female has the right and responsibility to vote, to have a say in the government that works for him or her.  Americans are fortunate, unlike so many people in places where children are forced to work for almost nothing, where women cannot own land, or where a man’s ancestry costs him his independence.

The Constitution not only gives citizens rights, it also protects them.  The Constitution provides America with a system of checks and balances to ensure that the government does not become lopsided or fall out of being a democracy.  The legislative, judicial, and executive branches all have certain powers with certain controls that keep the government working for its people.  Citizens of the United States don’t have to fear being arrested for going to church or being imprisoned without a trial.

Most importantly, the Constitution means freedom.  I have countless rights, and undoubtedly I take them for granted every day; I can live in whatever part of the nation I choose, I can be a Catholic without fear of who will find out, and I can freely voice my opinions about abortion, drugs, or war.  The Constitution provides this base of freedoms and rights that Americans get to practice every minute of every day.

The U.S. Constitution is not just a historical manuscript written in the 1700s.  It is a living document that endows Americans with the gifts of free will and independence.  The constitution has been amended twenty-seven times since it was written over 200 years ago, and although the task is not easy, it can be done.  That is a prime example of the power of such a document—one that can be changed by its own citizens.  I am proud to live in the United States with the protection and rights guaranteed to me by the Constitution; I am lucky.