Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The Howell Carnegie District Library is hosting a unique event next week to celebrate the semiquincentennial – describing it as "activism for introverts".

“Copy the Constitution” takes place on Monday from 6:30pm to 8pm at the library. It’s an in-person program and celebrates America's 250th anniversary.

The event description is as follows:

“We invite you, the people (see what we did there?), to copy the Constitution of the United States by hand (yes, by hand!) In light of the sometimes convoluted language in today's political discourse, we propose going back to basics. We invite the community to help reclaim the language on which democracy was built. Let's copy the Constitution. We hope that shifting the focus to these particularly important words will reacquaint all of us with what the Constitution promises.

Sounds like a big project? Turns out, our most important "rights document," the Constitution of the United States, is a mere 7600 words, including the 27 amendments. Participants, in shared community, will be assigned a part of the Constitution, copy it word for word in their own hand, post it in the room with all our various handwritten scrawls (all scrawls are welcome!), and, when it is reassembled, read it aloud. We hope this might become a reclamation of the principles of our country, may place us in closer kinship with those early writers and thinkers, and refresh our understanding of the core document of democracy. Why not get those words into our very fingertips? This event is brought to you in partnership with Michigan Writers and is intended for people age 14 and older. Light refreshments will be served.”
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Registration is required. More information is available in the provided link.