\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Listen to the audio edition here:<\/p>\n
Within a few hours, Steven Miller was calling Pretti \u2014 an ICU nurse with no criminal record \u2014 \u201ca domestic terrorist\u201d who \u201ctried to assassinate law enforcement\u201d while Kristi Noem was characterizing Pretti\u2019s actions as \u201cthe definition of domestic terrorism.\u201d In a matter of days, video proof would expose these lies. Meanwhile, here\u2019s what the National Constitution Center posted<\/a> next:<\/p>\n #OnThisDay in 1979, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller dies. Hear historian Richard Norton Smith discuss the legacy of this politician\u2019s unique position as a liberal Republican in mid-century America.<\/p>\n For many of us who love the Constitution and have long been inspired by the National Constitution Center, reading those posts was a gut punch, because of their aptness as metaphor. It is not partisan to speak that which is plainly obvious: When citizens of color on our streets must routinely produce their papers to masked lawmen, as in Minnesota of late, we have become Soweto in the 60s.<\/p>\n The Constitution is under assault. That the National Constitution Center has not been shouting so \u2014 that it has not only declined to lead on the essential questions of our day but made itself essentially absent from the debate \u2014 is to fail at meeting this moment.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re not built for this moment, please tear the building down and put up a Wendy\u2019s.\u201d \u2014 Constitution Center founding CEO Joe Torsella<\/p>\n But that could change. As you might have read in The New York Times,<\/a> the Center has just undergone a contentious change in leadership. After 12 years, CEO and president Jeffrey Rosen<\/a> is out. Trustee Judge Michael Luttig \u2014 a prominent conservative Trump critic and Rosen supporter \u2014 has stepped down from the NCC\u2019s board in protest over the change, even threatening to sue the institution.<\/p>\n Yes, it is another board seeming to have a nervous breakdown, as at the Philadelphia Art Museum,<\/a> University of the Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Community College of Philadelphia. But put that aside; there is something unique about the context the NCC finds itself in. Here lies opportunity, if the boldface names on the NCC board<\/a> recognize that the story isn\u2019t about who runs the place, but what the institution stands for.<\/p>\n This is not a new question for the NCC; current events just give it added urgency. Way back in 2011, two years after the Center had featured a Lady Di exhibition and one year before their exhibit on Bruce Springsteen, Ted Wolf, the Center\u2019s founding chairman, worried the institution was slipping into irrelevance. He told Philly Mag<\/a> it was \u201cgetting not too conservative politically, but conservative risk-wise. There should be more involvement in some of the more dangerous, controversial matters. The Constitution Center should become involved and get its hands dirty a little bit and take some risks.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosen is an intellectual giant, whose books<\/a> and reverence for Madisonian reasonableness make eggheads like yours truly swoon. But we\u2019re the already converted. In the last year, as the Trump administration has sought retaliation against its critics<\/a>, defied court orders<\/a>, bypassed senate confirmations<\/a>, impounded congressionally-appropriated funds<\/a>, trampled due process in immigration<\/a>, and more than chipped away at long-established free speech rights<\/a>, the NCC has seemed thoughtfully bemused \u2014 willing, perhaps, to write a strongly-worded letter if the mood struck.<\/p>\n It had become driven more by the head than the heart, instead of, in the words of founding CEO Joe Torsella at its 2003 opening, creating a place where you \u201center as a visitor and leave as a citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n Case in point: Gone from the wall is this quote from Judge Learned Hand, which speaks to the spirit of our experiment better than any white paper ever could:<\/p>\n I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.<\/p>\n This is what Torsella meant when he suggested that, as originally proposed by then-Mayor Ed Rendell, the Center\u2019s mission was to create citizens. The museum was designed to tell us a story, yes, but then shift the onus back on us. Sure, having folks affix their signature to the Constitution \u2014 or not \u2014 at the end of the Signers\u2019 Hall tour could be seen as gimmicky. But it also asked of us: What would you do? If the vast majority of your neighbors were loyal to the crown, would you be a revolutionary? Would you face death for an idea? Perhaps confronting us with those questions might steel us for this moment, no?<\/p>\n An American birthright we must actively claim <\/p>\n Next month, the Center will unveil its new permanent exhibition, America\u2019s Founding,<\/a> which it describes as \u201ca dynamic, interactive exploration of the American Revolution and the creation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.\u201d Sounds a little like Ken Burns for museum lovers, no? Irony of ironies: It\u2019s a Rosen and Judge Luttig joint, and they\u2019re both now outta there.<\/p>\n I am hopeful it will be more than a scholarly recitation of facts and, instead, something that awakens the civic soul resting in each of us. That\u2019s what my frequent jaunts to 7th and Arch in the mid-aughts used to do; I\u2019d go just to watch Freedom Rising, the 17-minute, 360-degree theatrical experience that never fails to make me tear up. It makes you realize there really is this thing called American Exceptionalism, but it is by no means inevitable; it is built on the blood of patriots, a birthright we must actively claim.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the National Constitution Center ought to embrace being the antidote to what ails democracy right now. That might require some reputational risk from some on its board \u2014 a fraction of what the actual Founders put on the line.<\/p>\n I reached out to Torsella, the former Rhodes Scholar and State Treasurer-turned-aspiring thespian. He\u2019s had two stints as CEO and he laughed when I asked if he was contemplating putting the band back together again. \u201cNo U.S. president in history has ever served three terms,\u201d he said, before pausing. \u201cUh, yet.\u201d He expressed his admiration for Rosen\u2019s 12-year run but indulged my hypothetical: if he were CEO, what\u2019s the first thing he\u2019d do?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d hold a press conference and say publicly to the slavery exhibit at Washington\u2019s President\u2019s House that you are homeless no more,\u201d Torsella said. \u201cYou now have a home at the National Constitution Center.\u201d<\/p>\n The purpose, he was quick to add, would not be to tussle with Trump. \u201cBut if you\u2019re not built for this moment, please tear the building down and put up a Wendy\u2019s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n I originally called Torsella because I thought I\u2019d come up with a list of CEO candidates. In the scholar realm, for example, there\u2019s Judge Michael McConnell,<\/a> director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford University Law School. He\u2019s an impeccable jurist \u2014 impossible to pigeonhole. McConnell once signed a petition for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, but he\u2019s also argued that the Supreme Court\u2019s Brown v. Board of Education ruling was decided in accordance with \u201coriginalism\u201d \u2014 the Framers\u2019 explicit intent. He lambasted the Supremes over Bush v. Gore and last year authored an influential amicus brief challenging Trump\u2019s constitutional power to tariff.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s New York University Law Professor Melissa Murray<\/a>, a frequent commentator on MS Now, who, along with the more conservative but no less qualified Ilya Shapiro,<\/a> was part of the NCC\u2019s really cool Constitution Drafting Project,<\/a> which featured three groups of scholars \u2014 conservative, progressive and libertarian \u2014 tasked with drafting their ideal constitutions. (The kicker? It was funded by none other than the Keystone state\u2019s own Darth Vader, the ever-surprising Jeff Yass.<\/a>) Other names come to mind, too. How cool would it be for Liz Cheney to be named CEO or at least given a board seat? That would certainly send a message that the constitutional game knows no team color.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat, then, about you and me? What are we ready to pledge?\u201d \u2014 Liberty Medal winner Bono<\/p>\n But Torsella persuaded me it doesn\u2019t matter who is in charge, so long as the institution rises to the occasion, takes some risks, and dedicates itself to defending the document. It is not partisan, after all, to merely call out the fact that the Reichstag<\/a> is burning.<\/p>\n What would that look like? Maybe, rather than bestowing the Liberty Medal upon Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow and the cast of the Broadway play \u2014 as if long-held constitutional norms are not imperiled \u2014 it should go to those in the trenches. Imagine honoring, say, Lisa Cook,<\/a> the Federal Reserve Governor who has refused to succumb to bullying; or to CHOP\u2019s Dr. Paul Offit,<\/a> who won\u2019t stop speaking truth to RFK, Jr.; or to Rachel Cohen,<\/a> the young associate pulling in $300,000 per year at the prestigious Skadden, Arps law firm who resigned in protest when her bosses succumbed to administration shakedowns and has gone on to work with a boutique firm fighting governmental overreach; or to Jamie Green,<\/a> the queer, progressive case worker at a St. Louis transgender care center who blew the whistle on her employer\u2019s treatment of kids suffering from gender dysphoria. All of these awardees would have their naysayers, which would kind of be the point. The only speech worth having is that which others are moved to answer.<\/p>\n Most of all, a rethink of the Constitution Center\u2019s mission would mean appealing not just to reason, but to our shared sense of emotion. You know who gets that distinction? Musicians. When I want to feel better? I stop thinking and flip on a little Al Green or Sly Stone. Which brings us to the 2007 Liberty Medal ceremony on the lawn outside the Constitution Center. That year\u2019s recipient, rocker and activist Bono, delivered a speech that was, by turns, bawdy, mischievous, and as patriotic as anything an international rock icon from Dublin has ever conveyed. The 2,500 in attendance that night walked away marveling at this miracle called democracy because Paul David Hewson had just recited them a tone poem that went straight to their gut.<\/p>\n Let me set my foot here, and say to you tonight this is my country. Let me say, with humility and pride in my own country, that anyone who has a stake in liberty has a stake in the United States of America. For all that you\u2019ve been through \u2014 good and bad \u2014 this is my country, too.<\/p>\n And then he did something that the board of the National Constitution Center and its next CEO ought to think about emulating. He wasn\u2019t afraid of pissing anyone off, and he challenged a diverse group to rally around common purpose. He referenced the last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: \u201cAnd for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.\u201d<\/p>\n You don\u2019t hear phrases like \u201csacred Honor\u201d much anymore, do you? Nor do we often face the stakes the Founders confronted; they knew they were committing treason. Yet they pledged their loyalty to one another and the cause of freedom. That night, with two former presidents \u2014 Clinton and Bush the elder \u2014 seated behind him, the rockstar offered an object lesson for the very institution honoring him.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat, then, about you and me?\u201d Bono said. \u201cWhat are we ready to pledge?\u201d<\/p>\n MORE ON THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER<\/p>\n Reportage: Guests listen as President Joe Biden delivers remarks on voting rights Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Saturday morning, as 10 masked ICE agents maced and then fatally shot protestor Alex Pretti on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4158,98,49134,7346,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-100794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-democracy","tag-independence-national-historical-park","tag-jeffrey-rosen","tag-national-constitution-center","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769731689_213_nl_bolt600-copy.jpg\"\/)
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