Harford Community College Celebrates Constitution Day Sept. 17

From Harford Community College:

In honor of Constitution Day, Harford Community College is hosting a lecture by Robert Ginsberg, Ph.D. on “The Bill of Rights: How It Has Endured” on September 17 at 12:30 PM at the Hays-Heighe House located on campus. Free pocket Constitutions will be available, along with light refreshments. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Ginsberg will discuss the philosophical character of natural rights and human rights as they are embodied in the United States Constitution and its fundamental amendments. He makes a case for going beyond the historical origin of those rights to their grounding as permanent, universal, and growing principles.

A professor of Philosophy at Penn State University, Dr. Ginsberg is director of the International Center for the Arts, Humanities, and Value Inquiry, an independent scholarly organization. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, his B.A. and M.A. in Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods at the University of Chicago, and was a Fulbright student at the University of Paris for two years.

Seating is limited and reservations are recommended; call 443-412-2539 or email haysheighe@harford.edu .

In addition to the lecture, pocket Constitutions will be available at several locations on campus throughout the day. HCC’s Office of Student Activities will host a voter registration table in the Globe Café in the Student Center from 10 AM to noon. The HCC Library will have a display about Constitution Day and the Constitution in place for most of September. For more information, visit http://harford.libguides.com/content.php?pid=146923&sid=1248592.

Constitution Day was introduced by the late Senator Robert Byrd, who sponsored a bill designating September 17 as the day for citizens to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution. He added the Constitution Day clause to his 2004 federal spending bill, mandating the teaching of the Constitution in schools that receive federal funds, as well as federal agencies.

The lecture is sponsored, in part, by the Maryland Humanities Council’s Speakers Bureau and various College departments and student organizations.
For more information, call 443-412-2495.