Schools, banks, and Wall Street are open, but today’s observance of Constitution Day is a holiday to nevertheless cheer and celebrate.

It’s been exactly 238 years since 39 delegates from 12 states signed off in Philadelphia on the U.S. Constitution. In replacing the Articles of Confederation, the historic document took four months to hash out. Even more significantly, it transformed a loose and deteriorating conglomeration of independent states into a more cohesive union.

James Madison is credited with writing the famed document, but it was George Washington who spearheaded and lobbied for it. Writing to Madison nearly two years before the convention, America’s first president warned:

“We are either a united people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support — If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.”

Sound familiar? As Simon and Garfunkel sang, “After changes upon changes, We are more or less the same.”

One of the first votes in Philadelphia that summer centered on whether they would amend the Articles of Confederation or start from scratch. It was hotly debated. Washington favored the latter, and his position prevailed.

It’s tempting to repair something rather than replace it. Growing up in a 100-year-old house, I watched my father jerry-rig everything from the furnace to windows on weights and chains. But there eventually came a time when he said enough was enough. Even houses “with good bones” still need to be updated and elements replaced.

For Washington and the 13 fledgling colonies comprising our young nation, that season arrived in the summer of 1787.

Aside from the Bible, we probably hear more about the Constitution than any other historic document. It’s 4,400 words handwritten on four pages have been fiercely debated and interpreted ever since it was ratified. The document consists of a Preamble and seven articles. At 81, Benjamin Franklin was its oldest signatory. Jonathan Dayton, who was 26, was the youngest.

The Constitution has been amended 27 times. We call the first 10 the “Bill of Rights” — freedoms that have been the center and subject of immense conversation and controversy.

Judges and politicians who see the Constitution as a “living document” are famous for reading all kinds of things into it but conveniently ignore the fact that the founders warned against such recklessness. Speaking at the 1787 convention, James Madison noted that the passage of amendments should be challenging to get through to protect “against that extreme facility which would render the Constitution too mutable.”

In other words, Madison and others didn’t want our founding document to be temporary but enduring.

It’s human nature to want to bend things to our benefit or rationalize arguments to comport with our point of view. Perversion is a sport these days. It manifests everywhere. Pornographers, Hollywood producers and activists pervert God’s beautiful gift of human sexuality. The multimillennia old understanding of the exclusivity of male and female is the subject of tremendous cultural confusion and perversion. Radical politicians and activist judges cooperate and perpetuate the illusion and delusion that the Constitution can mean whatever special interest groups desire.

We’re fortunate to have a slim majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who are originalists and textualists. Pragmatic and practical, they look at the Constitution to discern the founder’s intent. They recognize that times change — but that if the American people want foundational cultural changes not authorized in the Constitution, they need to change the document.

Prior to arriving in Washington, D.C., to be sworn in as president in March 1861, Abraham Lincoln, while preparing his inaugural address, wrote a note to himself. He referred to the Declaration of Independence as an “apple of gold” and the Constitution as the silver frame around it.

“The picture was made for the apple — not the apple for the picture,” wrote Lincoln. “So let us act, that neither picture, or apple shall ever be blurred, or bruised or broken.”

Our 16th president was alluding to King Solomon’s charge that “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” While short of sacred scripture, our Constitution should be revered not just every Sept. 17 – but every other day of the year also.

Paul J. Batura is a local writer and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email Paul@PaulBatura.com or on X @PaulBatura.