Honoring the Constitution came with critical thinking

MT. PLEASANT— Iowa Wesleyan University celebrated U.S. Constitution Day with a small gathering in student center social hall Monday evening, which invited guests in with patriotic music by Primae Voces choral group.

The Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Jeff Wallace and Director of the Honors Program and Associate Professor of History Dr. Jeff Houghtby spoke in a panel discussion to celebrate U.S. Constitution Day at Iowa Wesleyan University.

Wallace, who has previously given a Ted Talk on being informed to trauma, spoke about being able to see the whole picture of the constitution more clearly.

“I didn’t understand the whole picture,” Wallace said of his previous experiences viewing the constitution.

He compared looking at the constitution to looking at a group photo.

When one looks at group photo, he explained, they look for themselves first and most.

According to Wallace, he was so focused on how he fit in that he couldn’t see the full picture.

He, however, said that he started to see things more clearly as he started to understand the amendments more.

A surprising catalyst to this understanding for Wallace came from a comment made by Kanye West, actually.

When West visited Former President Donald Trump, west commented on the 13th Amendment.

“There are a lot of things affecting our mental health that makes us do crazy things that puts us back into that trapdoor called the 13th Amendment,” West said.

Wallace explained the concept of the trapdoor being the idea that the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, but with exception for incarceration purposes.

“I started feeling a bit more vindicated and better understood why people of color were at such a great disadvantage,” Wallace said. “Immediately laws were established and mass incarceration followed.”

“Then came the 14th Amendment which vanquished the 3/5th compromise,” he said. “We have the 19th Amendment allowing women to vote.”

Wallace quoted Frederick Douglass who said “If there is no struggle, there is no progress,” in 1857.

“We have the tools,” Wallace said. “We have the constitution, which is a phenomenal document, that allows us to become better people to each other, and ultimately make the picture to people who look like me, women, and other people who see themselves as disadvantaged see themselves more clearly in this document.”

“I came here, to this university, and I see so many underserved minorities, women, just a variety of people who otherwise aren’t represented in such numbers,” Wallace concluded. “And I am immediately encouraged and better understand why these tools are here and how we can use them to become better to each other and ourselves.”

Houghtby addressed the room as well, though, his message had a less positive spin.

The history professor chose to expand on his remarks from last year’s celebration when he spoke about the building of the Electoral College and procedures for amendments to the constitution in light of the January Insurrection.

“The Electoral College violates the principle that we all claim to embrace.” Houghtby said. “It is the principle of ‘One Person, One Vote.’ It is the promise of equal representation.”

“On one hand there has been more progress made on voting rights since 1965 than in any time in history,” he said. “I would add that the progress of the 1960s has only added new conflicts of not just to draw districts, but how to draw districts.”

Houghtby discussed his concerns with redistricting. While he would attest that it is necessary due to ever changing population demographics, he worries that how it is executed lends unfair representational advantages.

He expressed concern for manner of redistricting allowing for gerrymandering as less populated states could and do receive more representation per constituent.

According to Houghtby, Iowa has an unfair advantage in the amount of representation.

He continued his assessment of the current Electoral College with an exposition on the function of the Constitution.

“There have been over 1,200 efforts to amend the constitution, setting aside the Bill of Rights, only 17 have come to fruition,” he said. “It is almost impossible to amend the constitution.”

“The Framers [the founding fathers who created the constitution] knew they weren’t perfect,” he said. “They knew the constitution wasn’t perfect. They left it to us to perfect the democratic experiment. They believed in progress.”

Houghtby encouraged those who would listen to participate in creating necessary change.

“The framers haven’t gotten us here, even politicians haven’t gotten us here,” Houghtby said. “We have gotten us here.”

“I don’t want to be one sided, and I do want to celebrate our constitution,” he concluded, “But this is how I see the state of affairs here on constitution day.”

While the crowd was small, it was also interactive with many international students, some alumni, and a few university staff members.

After presentations by Wallace and Houghtby, Provost DeWayne Frazier encouraged this engagement through trivia with prizes.

In a pop quiz like style, Frazier asked questions about which amendments allowed of which rights, how many representatives Iowa is afforded at the federal level, and even a question about the common law system practices.

Wallace and Houghtby entertained a few questions from the audience, and stuck around for a little bit after the end of the program to chat with students, staff, and community members about constitutional topics.

A few of the international students took this mingling time to discuss what stood out to them the most about the discussion and presentations.

“When he [Houghtby] said that even in many years past, not much progress has actually been made,” Strategic Leadership Master’s Program student Paolo Ancona from Italy said.

Another student from the same master’s program, Pablo Alverez from Spain was also left considering comments made by Houghtby.

“Voting should be more fair for other states,” Alverez said.

Nepalese international student Alina Khadka has a different view of American government.

According to Khadka, a nursing program student, the program was interesting when she compares it to her home country’s politics.

Khadka gave a little background on her political upbringing.

“Ours is incredibly different, we didn’t have democracy. First there were kings and rana,” she said. “Then the people raised their voice and finally we had democracy in…”

As she tried to recall the year, a fellow IW student from Nepal, Kushal Khadka (no relation) suggested years in the 2062 and 2063.

“No, 2007 was the Democracy Day,” she said confidently.

2007 seems rather recently, Alina Khadka explained, however, that the year is not as recent as it may seem.

“The thing is, in Nepal, we are like 54 years ahead of the United States. So, now in Nepal it is 2079 and in the United States it is 2022.”

According to Alina Khadka, while Nepalese Democracy Day took place in 2007, around the 1950s in Western time, her country’s democracy is not the same as America’s.

“There hasn’t been much progress because of political instability,” she said. “Because of the changing parties of the government, we students have to face a lot fo problems. That’s why we choose to come international to get an education. Just because of the government changing, we the people have to face all of the problems because every change and regulation that is implement. The curriculum changes and everything. It sucks.”

“It is also a big issue over here, but coming here, I feel like the United States and a bit less of a worry thing than ours,” she said.

Alina Khadka says she sees the issues with the Electoral College and criminal voting rights, but feels like in the United States, democracy is about perfecting the government, not making the initial stability.

Each person in attendance left with a gift from the University consisting of a Pocket Constitution, small U.S. flag and U.S. flag pin and plenty to consider and discuss going forward.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com