What Does the Constitution Say with Author Ben Sheehan
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Season 2: Episode 7 Description
In today’s episode: 📜 Dig into the Constitution with author and expert, Ben Sheehan. Hear about his new book, “What Does the Constitution Say? A Kid’s Guide to How Our Democracy Works." 🗳️ Did you hear about the California Recall Election? Learn all about it and the outcome. 📰 In the news round-up: 🏈 A big NFL moment and roaming zebras. 🦓 And test your election knowledge in today's Trivia on the Ten. ✅
Sources for the episode:
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights/what-does-it-say
https://calmatters.org/explainers/recalling-california-governor-explained/
Links
📜 Celebrate National Constitution Day on September 17th
https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/constitution-day
🗳️ Learn more about the California Recall Election
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/california-recall-election-results-2021/index.html
📚 Pre-order Ben Sheehan's book, “What Does the Constitution Say? A Kid’s Guide to How Our Democracy Works."
https://bookshop.org/books/what-does-the-constitution-say-a-kid-s-guide-to-how-our-democracy-works/9780762498475
📧 Do you have something to tell us? Email us at: hello@thetennews.com
📝 Sign up for The Ten News-letter!
📸 Join us on Instagram
TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:02
What's turning 234 years old on September 17th, and still trending? The United States Constitution. Today we're unscrolling National Constitution Day. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's September 16th. And this is The Ten News
Various Voices 0:23
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 0:31
On September 17th, 1787, the US Constitution was signed by 39 out of the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Why didn't everyone sign it? For some delegates, it was missing a Bill of Rights, a section that would explain an individual's rights. And for others, it was because at the time it protected slavery and the slave trade, though it's clearly been changed or ratified over time, the Constitution has been the basis of our democracy for over 200 years. So what's in this document? And why is it so important to understand it? To find out more, our show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan, spoke with constitutional expert Ben Sheehan, author of What Does The Constitution Say, a kid's guide to how our democracy works.
Tracy Kaplan 1:24
Hey, Ben, it's great to have you back with us today and The 10 News, you've got a new book out where you cover the entire Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Tell us why you created the book, and what do you hope kids will get out of it?
Ben Sheehan 1:37
Sure. Well, I really wanted to create something that could be understood by younger audiences. I remember when I was a kid and that's when I got interested in government from a young age. I was lucky to have a parent who worked in the government and would help teach me over dinner every night when she got home from work. And I wanted to kind of create that for the casual reader between ages 8 and 12. Something that sort of is in their tone, understandable, and to really be the big introduction into how our government works, because I think the younger you are, when you get introduced to the government, the less scary and confusing it is when you're older.
Tracy Kaplan 2:16
And since the book is full of so much, great information and facts. We're going to give you a little quiz today. Okay, starting us off, question one. This week, we are celebrating National Constitution Day when the constitution was originally signed in 1787, over 200 years ago, so much has changed since. Why do we still follow the Constitution? You even call out in the book that it was written by, quote, white men in white wigs.
Ben Sheehan 2:49
Whether we like it or not, this is the outline for our entire government. So the Constitution is often called the Supreme Law of The Land because it's higher technically than any law. It says what the government can and can't do. It says what states can't do, it leaves a lot of things up to up to the state. So the good thing about this document is that it allows us to change it if we want and those changes are called Amendments, and we have 27 of them since the Constitution was written. But this is the framework for our government and the people who wrote it actually wanted us to change it, which is why they gave us the ability to do it.
Tracy Kaplan 3:30
Question two, what is something that we think is in the Constitution, but isn't?
Ben Sheehan 3:36
Something that a lot of us commonly think is in the Constitution, but it actually isn't. And that is the right to vote, we don't have a fundamental right to vote in the Constitution. The reason is that the states couldn't agree on who should be allowed to vote. And so they ended up leaving it up to the states. So what happened is that you started to have the federal government through amendments say that certain people could not have their right to vote taken away because of certain things. So we have all these protections that were added after the fact to make sure people couldn't have their right to vote denied because of these things. But whether or not they have that right to vote in the first place is largely up to whether their state says they can vote.
Tracy Kaplan 4:21
Question three, each state has its own constitution, and they have power separate from the federal government. One thing that states can't do, though, is print their own money. But if they could, which one would have the coolest dollar bill?
Ben Sheehan 4:36
That is a really, really good question. I'm biased. I'm from Maryland, and I see a big picture of a crab right in the center of the $1 bill, or I should maybe it's the $5 bill.
Tracy Kaplan 4:48
Question four. So the book talks about how our nation's capital Washington D.C was created in the constitution by giving quote 10 miles square. That's 100 square miles for our math lovers out there. And now DC is working on a path to statehood, should Washington D.C become its own state?
Ben Sheehan 5:06
I think that you have 700,000 people, many, if not all of them pay federal taxes, they're all supposed to pay federal taxes. But they don't get a chance to say what that money goes toward. And it's the same for a lot of the people who live in the United States, territories. Everyone in there is born there as an American citizen, and you pay federal taxes, but you don't get to have a say in how the money is spent. And I think that we live in a country. And I'm sure a lot of people would agree that was founded on not having taxation without representation. So I think that should be true whether you live in a state whether you live in the National Capital, or whether you live in a territory.
Tracy Kaplan 5:43
Question five. Last question. How can kids who are interested in our political system, maybe even in changing it, how can they get involved?
Ben Sheehan 5:53
One thing they can do is they can, they can start to ask questions to adults in their life. They can ask questions about what was in the newspaper that day they can, they can listen to this show, and get and get informed. But I think it also starts with knowing who your elected leaders are. Because even if you aren't old enough to vote, you're still a constituent, you're still somebody that your elected representative represents. And so they want to hear from you, you know whether or not you are old enough to vote. So it starts with knowing who your representatives are, and then knowing who your leaders are at the state level. So your governor, your State Secretary of State, your state attorney general, your state representative, your state senator. So knowing the names of you know, the top 5 to 10 people who have the most impact on your life is a really good way to start so that you can start making sure that they're representing your interests.
Tracy Kaplan 6:48
That's great. Thank you so much for joining us again today, Ben. This has been super helpful, and you passed our quiz.
Ben Sheehan 6:54
Thank you so much for having me, Tracy.
Bethany Van Delft 6:56
Thanks, Ben and Tracy, I can't wait to check out this guide. And there's a link in our show notes for where to find it. On the subject of interesting rules in our democracy, the state of California just finished a recall election where governor Gavin Newsom was in danger of being recalled or removed from office. What? A recall is a special election to remove the governor before the end of their term. Recall elections can move forward if organizers can collect enough signatures. In California's case, there needed to be more than 1.49 million signatures or at least 12% of the voters from the last election. The signature-gathering was successful and the recall election was held on Tuesday, September 14th. On the ballot, voters were asked if they wanted to recall governor Newsom and if yes, who should replace him? There were 46 candidates running to replace him. No way. And if more than 50% of voters selected yes to the recall, then the winner with the most votes would become governor. Why is that important? Well, it means that someone with only a small percentage of the electorate could win and California would end up with a governor picked by a small number of its residents. Okay. That's bad. Ultimately, the recall was not successful on Tuesday in California voters decided they wanted governor Newsome to continue his term. What do you think Ten'ers? Do you think there should be recall elections? Or do you have other questions about the political process? Leave us a message on our phone line and let us know. Call us at 877 Ten News. That's 877 t e n n e w s. Now, let's see what else is going on.
Bethany Van Delft 9:00
Last week, the Los Angeles school board voted to require that all students ages 12 and up receive a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021. The decision was made as a result of the Delta Variant which continues to spread at a troublesome pace. The LA school district has more than 600,000 students, which makes it the second-largest in the country. We'll see if other school districts do the same. Okay. On Sunday, Maia Chaka became the first black woman to officiate a National Football League game when she served as a line judge for a matchup between the New York Jets and the Carolina Panthers. As one of seven officials on the field during a football game, Maia's job is to enforce the rules and keep an eye on the clock. She's just the third woman in the history of the NFL to serve as an on-field official. Get it, Maia. Now imagine looking out your window and seeing zebra stripes. Buy. That's right, a zebra. That's exactly what happened to some residents of Prince George's County in Maryland, where five zebras escaped from a private farm. The zebras have been roaming around the area for several days now. Zebra's aren't considered dangerous, but they can get spooked and run pretty fast, so catching them is no easy task. Lucky you! It's...
Various Voices 10:29
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 10:32
Trivia on the Ten. In 2003, California Governor Gray Davis lost his position in a recall election. 153 people ran against him, which divided up a lot of the votes and led to a surprising outcome. What famous action star won the recall election with 48.6% of the vote? Was it a) David Bautista, Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy, b) Arnold Schwarzenegger, your original Terminator, or c) Angelina Jolie, aka Lara Croft in Tomb Raider?
Bethany Van Delft 11:16
Did you guess it? The answer is B. Back in 2003, the Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped into politics in a big way and became the governor or Governator as he was called. That's unbelievable. Though inexperienced when he was first elected, the Governator won his second term in California and ran the country's most populous state from 2003 to 2011. I'll be back. Time's up. But before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and it's distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is reading the constitution right now and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, and Nathalie Alonso. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft. And thanks for listening to The Ten News. I'll be back.
