Recognize, appreciate the Bill of Rights Monday

Tomorrow, in the routine of your day, or in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, consider for a moment the Bill of Rights. Monday is Bill of Rights Day, as so declared by president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, on the 150th anniversary of its adoption.

It is a document that ensures our freedoms. It is the model and envy of countries throughout the word.

We use the Bill of Rights every day, perhaps without realizing it. If we attend a church of our choice, if we speak out against government, we’re using it. If we assemble, if we keep a firearm, if we read this newspaper, or others like it, or go online, we’re using it. That’s the Bill of Rights silently in effect. The Bill of Rights also prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty, property without due process of law. It prevents someone from making self-incriminating testimony; it compels the courts to provide to the accused, a speedy trial with an impartial jury.

James Madison is considered the author of the Bill of Rights as a supplement, or adjunct to the Constitution which was adopted in 1787. Madison said he was influenced by a similar Bill of Rights from the state of Virginia, from England from which the United States was seeking its freedom, even from the Magna Carta that dates to 1215.

The Bill of Rights certainly merits a “day” of recognition. When in Washington, it’s located in the Rotunda of the National Archives building. It is one of most precious tenets of American freedom.