Remember Constitution's meaning on anniversary Published Sept. 19, 2006 By Steve Larsen 22nd Air Refueling Wing Historian MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. -- -- When I originally considered what to write we were in the middle of the Kansas summer and oppressive triple digit temperatures. This led me to think of another summer equally as miserable. Philadelphia in 1787 experienced extreme weather of similar proportion to this one. Those who lived through it said it was the worst they had seen in 37 years. It was in this stifling summer heat that men wearing wool and velvet suits entered Independence Hall, without the modern convenience of air conditioning, to form a new system of government unlike any the world had seen. The men attending were overall, young. Their average age was 42. At the age of 81, America's senior statesman, Benjamin Franklin, was the oldest. Only seven signers of the Declaration of Independence attended the convention. This convention was in many respects, a passing of the torch from the old guard Revolutionaries to the Young Turks who would lead the country beginning in the middle of the 19th century's first decade. Identifying the definitive moment of the convention itself is difficult. Certainly one iconic moment must have been the presentation of the Virginia Plan upon which the Constitution itself was eventually based. A 38-year-old Virginia lawyer of less than impressive bearing drafted this plan. Slight and bookish, one would refer to James Madison as a "geek" or "nerd" in modern terms. For this very reason, he happily gave in to Edmund Randolph who possessed a booming basso-baritone voice and presented a far stronger, more authoritarian visage than "Little Jemmy," as he was known. Mr. Madison's plan featured a republican system of government. Three branches - one executive, one judicial and the last, a two-house legislature that included one body elected by the people. During the two-year fight to ratify the document, "Little Jemmy" firmly articulated the need for a democratic republic system. The national government could not take the powers of the states, nor could the states chart a course that drifted against the common good of the entire union. This truly separated the American Republic from the more false systems of pure Athenian democracy and the dictatorial approach of monarchs and emperors. Uniformed personnel recite oaths to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Gouveneur Morris' preamble to this document used to be a mandatory grade school recitation exercise: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America." This short section is more than a mere preface or some idealistic platitude. It literally speaks directly to both the charter's purpose and what Americans hold dear.