Hi Reader!
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a screening at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston of The Inquisitor, a documentary about Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.
As a Houstonian, I'm always surprised to hear people say they had never heard of Barbara Jordan. **clutching proverbial pearls**
One of the moments that seemed to arrest the audience was listening to her words during the Nixon impeachment hearings:
Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: “We, the people.” It’s a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed, on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.” I felt somehow, for many years, that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in "We, the people.”
Today I am an inquisitor. An hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
“Who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?” “The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men.” And that’s what we’re talking about. In other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.
During the panel discussion, there seemed to be exuberant and renewed interest in the Constitution. Funny. It's almost like no one in Houston has been asking - encouraging - begging folks to read the Constitution for themselves in the last 3 year . . . almost like there isn't a self-paced course to this end . . . Almost. . .
In honor of Barbara Jordan and the 22 Founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (to which we both belong) access to Constitution in 90 Days has been reduced to $22 for the remainder of 2025.
Be an inquisitor . .
