NYS Senator Gustavo Rivera speaking to MU
students.
GRACE MCKEOWN / THE QUADRANGLE
Grace McKeown and Erioluwa Akin-Salami, Contributors
On Sept. 17, Manhattan University (MU) invited New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera to campus to commemorate Constitution Day.
“Constitution Day and Citizenship Day,” as it’s formally known, marks the final day of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention on Sept. 17, 1787, when the framers ratified the Constitution after securing approval from the nine states then required for a majority.
Rivera, who has represented the Bronx’s 33rd Senate District for over 16 years and chairs the Committee on Health, started the discussion with an opening summary of the Constitution.
“The Constitution sets up a series of institutions, and that is what I want to linger on today,” Rivera said. “Because it will assist us in thinking about where we are, not where we started, but about you folks that are going to outlast me.”
Rivera shared his perspective on the Constitution, noting both its importance and its shortcomings, and stressed that the institutions it establishes require careful stewardship. The document, he explained, is the moral structural foundation the country is built on, and it falls on the citizens to protect it.
“Bonsai trees need to be consistently trimmed, watered, and requires close attention so that the tree could still be there 1000 years later,” Rivera said. “Similarly, when thinking about the institutions we have been given, we need to care for them, especially, the three branches of government: Executive, Judicial and Legislative.”
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Margaret Groarke, Ph.D., professor and the department chair of history, political and international studies, coordinated the campus event. In a separate interview with The Quadrangle, Groarke shared that youth, often overlooked, can have an impact by attending community board meetings, lobbying elected officials, forming organizations, engaging in protests, public speaking and political education.
“I teach a class called ‘Youth Power and Politics,’ and every major effort for change in the country has involved a lot of young people.” Groarke said. “We’re not going to continue to evolve as a country without the political participation of young people.”
Groarke explained that she believes young people can drive meaningful change to our political system. As a professor, Groarke recognizes Constitution Day as a holiday set in place to teach and remind U.S. residents what the Constitution is truly about.
“The reason that we celebrate Constitution Day is because the members of Congress who wrote that law felt that it was important to American Democracy,” Groarke said. “[And] that Americans understand our political system, [as well as] their rights and constitutional obligations.”
Groarke continued to argue that youth engagement is the most effective way to counter unconstitutional actions by the current administration.
“If the youth are not involved, the issues the youth want will not be issues Congress spends energy on,” Groarke said. “The 65-year-old old guy is not thinking about the same problems as a university student.”
Danica Mason, a senior political science major and the lead coordinator of Jaspers Vote, a club that works to increase voter participation, especially among students, spoke to The Quadrangle about her perspective on youth engagement at MU.
“70% of students are registered to vote,” Mason said. “Recent polls show that youth are showing up demographically throughout the whole country. This participation must continue, for it is every citizen’s obligation to do so.”
Nearly 250 years after the framers signed it, the message from Constitution Day was straightforward; the Constitution only works if the next generation shows up for it.