Independence day, Constitution Day may seem boring. After all, the constitution is just words, but it has a great story. It was born in a crisis. Its birth has been called the miracle of philadelphia and endured conflict over slavery, a civil, economic depression and even two world wars. It has been at the center of some of our fiercest national debates. We cannot tell the story of something we dont know. And too many americans, especially young people are unfamiliar with the u. S. Constitution and its essential place in our history and importantly, in their own lives. On the issue of americans Civic Knowledge and knowing the constitution, annenberg public Policy Center out with their annual survey. Here is some of the top line numbers. U. S. Adults who can correctly name all three branches of government increased this year to 56 . That is up from just over 50 last year. More respondents this year were able to name most of the freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment. One in three americans knows how long the term of office for a senator is. 35 correctly said it was six years. We will dive more into the results of that survey, Civic Knowledge in the u. S. Mostly spending this first Hour Hearing from you. Want to know what the most important amendment to the constitution is in your mind. How does it apply to your Life Today in 2021 . John, akron, ohio is up first. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. What a wonderful idea and very apt. The first amendment, i see it as the most important and especially right now windows on a certain side of the spectrum are not respecting it, observing it and allowing it to the degree that they did. To me, it seems it is one of our most precious, one of the most precious things that we have, the freedom of speech and the ability to speak as we do. Hoping that as social media into news to be more integrated into our society, but this that this amendment continues to play the crucial fact it did up until about a year ago. Host thanks for the call. The first amendment, congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion or a free speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for a redress of their grievances. Back to that Annenberg Center for public policy survey. They asked annually each of their respondents to name the freedoms guaranteed in the first amendment. Interestingly, 74 of respondents were able to name the freedom of speech. 56 saying freedom of religion, although that is up from last years 47 . Half of respondents were able to name freedom of the press. 30 naming the right of people to peaceably assemble. 20 naming the right guaranteed a people to petition the government for a redress of grievance does grievances. Amy is next out of georgia. The most of men important amendment in your mind. Caller i would sit the 14th. As a black woman, equal protection has given me a lot of rights. I am concerned they are looking at roe v. Wade. It is very scary. I want to make a, about the oped. I do not feel it endured a conflict over slavery. Host that is amy in west point, georgia. Back to the oped where we started this morning. The Author And Headline on his piece the u. S. Constitution is not just words. He was more of what he wrote. What story do we need to learn from the constitution . Not that the constitution is perfect, we know it is not, it has been amended 27 times. We need to discover that it is a glorious document and put in the practice the principles of our declaration of independence. Those principles make us one people at the declaration says. They define who we are as americans, they matter. Students also need to learn that american history is the story of our ongoing struggle to live up to our countrys founding principles of freedom. As dr. King put it in 1963, when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution And Declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every american was to fall heir. This was a promise to all men were guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. On this Constitution Day, he writes that we need to rededicate ourselves to the principles of the constitution and compelling way in which they have shaped our history as americans. We need to bring these principles alive again in the hearts and minds of all americans, especially the young. As we talk about Constitution Day in the United States, we especially want to hear from you. Take a look at the 27 amendments to the u. S. Constitution. Which one is the one that is most important to you . A caller this morning talking about the first amendment. A lot more discussion about the first amendment happening this morning. 10 30 a. M. Eastern cspan is airing a conversation on the first amendment hosted by the Cato Institute here in d. C. You can watch that here and listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Back to your phone calls, what is the most important amendment to you . Anthony in arizona. Caller good morning. I would say the 27th Amendment is the most important. The reason i state that, even though i am an africanamerican with indian ancestry is that we should have the 28th, the 29th, the 30th. The founders of the constitution recognized that they were not the smartest people at that time, but they were smart enough to say we are going to have to amend this constitution at some point. If you look at the 27th, and again, we should have more than 27, the 27th talks about pay and raises. One of the things covid seeks the weakest link. Just like floods, you go to the high ground. With covid i dont need to bring it in, but just as an example, if you make your body strong, if you get to the higher ground of your bodys immunity, you are strong. We have elected officials that pretty much just want to figure out how to get another raise and not have to do any work. We need more amendments because our founders allowed that. Host what should be the 20th amendment and what should be the 29th . 28th amendment and what should be the 29th . Caller here is one of the things i would do and thank you for bringing that up. I think the 28th should say we should only have one president ial term, and it should be six years. And therefore, you cannot be reelected, and it would keep so much confusion out of politics. We would not have someone who just did not get reelected now trying to get elected again. That could be anyone. That would be the first one. The second one would be to take away the powers of one soul individual. We are going to call this the 29th amendment, have the ability to launch weapons. We need the 30th And 31st and 32nd because those elected officials are just elected. They are not officiating anything. Did that answer your question . Host thanks for the call. Jim is in New York city. Good morning. Most important amendment in your mind . Caller to be specific to your question, i would say the second amendment because it is the sole amendment which secures all the others. I would like to also say that all of the amendments are of great importance. I think the first two in combination are extremely important because in all relationships, there are two principles operating, reason and force. The first amendment is the essence of reason. The second amendment is force. When reason fails, nothing is left but force. The second amendment secures all the others in the event that reason should fail. I think one other mma that is important, amendment that is important which is what people really talk about is the ninth which says that there are many more rights than those enumerated in the constitution. I Cant Think of the quotation off the top of my head, but the enumeration of certain rights in the constitution shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, which explains clearly that those amendments and rights in the articles as well, which are enumerated in the constitution, are not the only ones retained by the people. There may be an infinite number of possible of rights which the people can claim. Host the nonenumerated rights past september 25, 1789 as part of the bill of rights, the enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. That is from the bill of rights. Thanks for the call from New York city. Dennis in georgia. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. They keep adding amendments. They need to add another one for schools using children for their Football Games that spend their whole day promoting football, and this goes on all over the United States every week. These kids need to live their lives. Somebody needs to help them out here. They on tv right now and the Football Game starts at 7 00. Somebody needs to help these kids. Host that is dennis in georgia. This is gary out of battle creek, michigan. Caller is it the 13th of and or the 14th amendment that was the civil War Amendment about granting citizenship to the slaves . Host the 13th, the abolition of slavery, the 14th, citizenship rights, equal protection, apportionment in there as well on the 14th amendment. Caller i was going to say, the fact that we are so racially polarized, i am worried that immigrants, native americans, their rights will be curtailed, voting rights will be curtailed. To me, it would also help of certain candidates had actually read the constitution. Idell think donald trump has bothered to read the constitution because i dont think he really cares about the constitution. I keep hearing that people are going to stop is of the direct election of senators that people want to repeal . Host there are a lot of proposed eminence to the constitution. Plenty of those. Amendments to the constitution. Plenty of those. Caller there are some people that want to turn back all of the vans meant advancement. The rights of women to vote. That is an important one. Host section one of the 14th, all persons born and naturalize in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of any citizen nor shall the state deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. June 13, 1866. It was ratified in 1868. The constitutioncenter. Org, a very good resource to perhaps pull up during the first hour of washington journal today. The Constitution Center very much a friend of this network. Glad to always have their help. Michelle is in New York. Good morning. Caller good morning. I dont know who was the original who made the original quote, but the quote is my religion is the constitution. About 20 years ago, i was watching cspan and there was this man that was a black attorney driving his Mother And Sister from a funeral. He was stopped and they wanted to search his car, but his specialty was the fourth amendment. It was fascinating. That is how i first learned about the fourth amendment. Thank you. Host the fourth amendment, part of the bill of rights, the right of people to be secure in their persons and houses and papers and affects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Taking our phone calls this morning on this Constitution Day. Asking you what is the most important amendment to the u. S. Constitution. 27 amendments to the United States constitution, more than 11,000 have been introduced in congress over the years. 33 have gone to the states to be ratified. 27 have received the necessary approval from states and have actually become amendments to the constitution. Let us know what is the most important one in your life. One number if you are in the eastern or central time zones, one is the number if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. As you continue to call in this morning, also keeping you uptodate on events we have covered on the cspan network. Last night last night, we covered the gubernatorial debate taking place in virginia. The headline from Todays Washington times, yunken focuses on economic issues and squares often not debate. Glenn young kim, the republican. Terry mcauliffe, the democrat running. Here are some of the exchanges from last night. [video clip] i have been a strong advocate for everybody to get the vaccine. That is why i launched a public Service Announcement to encourage people to get the vaccine. I believe that right now, we face a real difference between my opponent and me. Although just five weeks ago, he was pretty much in my same position, encouraging businesses to make their own decisions. But he changed that when it became politically expedient. I think what we need to do right now is make sure that everyone in virginia understands that getting the vaccine is the most important thing we can do. That is why i invited teri to do a psa with me so we can encourage all virginians to get the vaccine. When im leaving virginia, we are going to make sure virginians understand the best way to keep themselves healthy, provide all the best information and encourage virginians to act. Your time is up. Very quickly, yes or no, would you challenge the constitutionality of bidens mandates in court . I dont believe he has the authority to dictate to everyone that we have to take the vaccine. So is that a yes . I would encourage everyone to get the vaccine, but i doubt that he has the authority to do so. Mr. Mcauliffe, you have set a goal that every child in virginia be vaccinated, but you would not mandate it. You would leave that to the school districts to decide. But virginia already requires students to have 11 different vaccinations at various ages to attend school. Covid is a more dangerous Health Threat to them today than polio or other diseases. My question is, should the state add covid to that list . That is to require all students who are ageappropriate to get a covid shot too . First of all, i have been very out front for people getting vaccinations. Ive called for employers to mandate it, everyone in a hospital, every individual who works in a longterm Care Facility or a nursing home. Everybody who works in k12. Everybody who attends high red. I have been very strong on this from day one. Glenn and i differ. He has had rhetoric out there. He told college students, if you dont want to take the vaccine, just fill out an exemption. I think that is lifethreatening and disqualifying as governor. He does not believe in forcing people to understand what covid is going to do to this state and country. It is still across the country. Right here in this county, all of the icu beds are full. Im for requiring mandate vaccinations. He likes to be psas. Psas are not going to get you anything. I want everybody to be vaccinated in the commonwealth of virginia. Your time is up. Yes or no, would you add covid to the list of required vaccines . Over the age of 12. The fda has not done the analysis under 12. So for students above the age of 12, would you support adding the Covid Vaccine . Absolutely. Host that from the virginia gubernatorial debate last night. If you want to watch the debate in its entirety, you can do so on our website. We are spending this first hour of the washington journal today, this Constitution Day asking what is the most important constitutional amendment in your mind. One number for eastern or central time zones, one if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. And is in california. Caller ellen is in california. Caller my most important is the one that is most abused which is the 14th which allows illegal immigrants to come into this country, have a child, and it is declared a citizen. Host so you would like to amend the 14th amendment, repeal the 14th amendment . What would be your citizenship requirements if you got to decide . Caller given how difficult it is when we have no choice in the constitution and how difficult it is in reality to change the government. Host coming back to the point you made at the beginning, do you think we have a functional democracy for that . Caller i think its a matter of degree. We are more functional than many other countries in the world. It is not perfect. You could ask what gives the constitution what binds us to live under it if we dont have the ability to change. We had no say in it. The whole idea of consent of the governed seems can