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Constitution Day 2008
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By Kakie Urch
School of Journalism and Telecommunications
The right to vote and the right to make an informed decision is guaranteed by the United States Constitution. And UK faculty and students took time to celebrate that fact on the eve of Election Day 2008.
On Sept. 17, University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications faculty and students participated in Constitution Day 2008, an event sponsored by: Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence, Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, Discovery Seminar Program, UK Student Government on the Main Building North Lawn on the UK Campus in Lexington.
Organized by JAT Prof. and Citizen Kentucky Project Director Buck Ryan, the two-hour event welcomed several generations of US voters – from fourth-graders at Rosa Parks Elementary School to UK students casting their votes for the first time to administrators and dignitaries who remembered their first votes -- in elections that had candidates with names like Nixon, Goldwater, McGovern, Ford and Carter
After opening comments by Dr. Phil Kraemer, the Associated Provost for Undergraduate Studies and leader of the Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence, Master of Ceremonies Ryan, along with his first-year Discovery Seminar classmembers in Citizen Kentucky: Journalism and Democracy class, took over the event.
Guests heard from UK President Lee Todd , who told of voting absentee in the Lyndon Johnson/Barry Goldwater race as a student at Murray State University.
UK Vice President for Institutional Diversity J.J. Jackson told of the first time she voted. It was the year after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and Jackson was a student at UNC Greensboro, where her sister, a senior, was involved in the lunch counter sit-ins.
"Voting comes from a very personalized and individual place." "Know the issues. Know yourself. Know as many people different from you as you can," Jackson told the crowd.
Former Ashland Oil CEO Paul Chellgren, benefactor of Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence and a Harvard graduate, told of voting in the Barry Goldwater/Lyndon Johnson race Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, a Republican, told the crowd, to laughter: “ In my first presidential election, I voted for Bill Clinton. I was wrong. “
Other dignitaries and officials who told their tale of their first voting experience included: UK Prof. Al Cross, former Courier-Journal political reporter, Director of Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues; Dr. Ernie Yanarella, political science professor, 39 years teaching, Board of Trustees member; Bill Goodman, Host of “Kentucky Tonight” at KET; Dr. Tom Blues, Lexington City Councilman, UK professor of English (ret.) ; Jim Newberry, Mayor of Lexington; Judge Glenn E. Acree, Kentucky Court of Appeals, Division 2, 5th Appellate District; Tyler Montell , UK Student Government Association president; Grant Mills, SG vice president, Tyler Fleck, SG Chief of Staff, Barb Jackson, SG Deputy Chief of Staff. Herald-Leader Columnist Tom Eblen: Lexington City Councilman Chuck Ellinger II
Guests at the event included hundreds of students from Rosa Parks Elementary School, who answered questions about the Constitution from a “Quizmaster,” LaPorsha Jackson 18, Shelbyville, KY , a student in Prof. Ryan’s Discovery Seminar, who gave away prizes for correct answers. The Cassidy School Singers did a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and guests were treated to free apple pie from UK Catering and free pocket-size copies of the U.S. Constitution.
Practical advice and action was stressed as well. Catherine Ware, Election Coordinator, County Clerk Don Blevins’ office talked about college students and importance of voting and gave the crowd information on deadlines and how to register. Student organizations including College Democrats, College Republicans and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth distributed information and signed people up to vote.
A four-page color insert to the Kentucky Kernel newspaper that included key points of the Constitution, historical facts and facts about the current McCain/Obama presidential race was distributed to all at the event. (Freedom of the Press, of course, is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, as the insert pointed out).
The international perspective was evident at the event as well. Dr. David J. Bettez, Director, UK Office of International Affairs introduced German Fulbright student Jan Schacht and German Fulbright student Dessislava Kirova. Schacht talked about biased press and state supported neutral press in Germany. Dessislava talked about emigrating from Bulgaria to Germany and only getting her citizenship recently so this will be the first time she votes.
And UK Student Bone Ntchou, 18, Louisville, Ky. , who emigrated from Togo in West Africa 10 years ago took the stage and talked about being excited to vote for the first time in the U.S. Ntchou, who hopes to be a television newscaster, just got her citizenship. In Togo, she said, “I have never seen a woman on television. In the U.S. you can be a woman and be on TV. “
Educating young voters, whether they are 9 or 19 years old, was a theme. Kelli Telech, Social Studies Teacher, Fayette County Schools, Rosa Parks Elementary gave a rousing talk, bringin listeners through the curriculum that helps her turn elementary school children into lifetime voters.
The day ended with some important nods to history. Dr. Robert Tannenbaum, Director of eUreKa! Experience in Undergraduate Research and Kreative Studies revisted the 1920 awarding of suffrage to American women through a family connection. Tannenbaum’s 92-year-old mother , he said, was alive before women could vote. She was born in 1916. Tannenbaum told the crowd: “My father took her as a four-year-old into the voting booth the first year that women could vote and said ‘Beulah, this is the way you vote. You should do it every time you can.’ She has voted in 71 elections and is getting ready to vote in another."
And Dr. Richard Labunski, Professor of Journalism and author of James Madison and The Struggle for the Bill of Rights on Oxford University Press told the crowd about how hard James Madison fought to make sure that a Bill of Rights would be appended to the Constitution. Madison, Labunski said, fought bravely against people like Patrick Henry and George Mason to ensure that a bill guaranteeing the rights we see as essentially American – those of free speech, religion, assembly, and petition of the government for redress of grievances -- was appended in the First Congress.
As Tom Eblen, Herald-Leader columnist who also teaches in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications, told the crowd: "With rights come the responsibility to educate yourself. Take that responsibility seriously." Click on the picture to start soundslides
of Constitution Day 2008
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