To the Editor:
I recently read an opinion piece by Assemblyman Karl Brabenec calling for Constitution Day to be expanded into Constitution Week. While the idea sounds admirable, I find myself questioning the undermined the very principles of the Constitution was designed to uphold. He and his supporters seem intent on dismantling the checks and balances that protect our democracy, consolidating presidential power at the expense of oversight.
Citizens and residents are being detained - including children in school, taken by masked men without warrants - all without due process guaranteed by the 5th and 14th Amendments. Environmental protections enacted by law are being rolled back by “executive order” (a power never mentioned in the Constitution), putting public health and safety at risk, at the whim of the Executive. He has weaponized tariffs - a tool reserved in Article 1, Section 8, to Congress, wreaking havoc on small businesses, the economy, and international trade. Science is flagrantly dismissed and our healthcare system continues to falter — all under this administration’s watch.
So yes, let us have Constitution Week, but let it be more than a symbolic gesture. Let it be a week when every citizen sets aside time to study our founding document, and every leader is held accountable to the rules of law and the principles enshrined within it. Let’s do more than celebrate the constitution, let us defend it.
Rick Weber
Florida, N.Y.