GROSSMONT COLLEGE – Roaming around campus this week. students may have noticed  two large pillars wrapped with construction paper.These pillars near the campus cafe quad were placed during Constitution Week for  students to express their opinions on the question: “What does the Constitution mean to you?”

Whether you were born in America, or abroad, certain rights guarantee civilians, students and immigrants freedoms they might not have available in other countries.  One of these is free speech.  For me, watching students exercising their free speech and expressing their emotions as they approached the pillars was  almost as interesting and informative  as reading what others wrote.   Some passersby would read written comments, chuckle, and then announce “that was funny.”

One studious student  quipped “Grammar errors attracted me to the wall.”Plenty of explicit comments could be found on the wall, in some cases stretching the limits of free speech.  Students who were more serious about their opinions about the Constitution in some cases were heckled for their  efforts, but then again that is a right protected by the Constitution.

Maribel V., a student engulfed in reading the comments on the wall, commented, “People should know the Constitution better.”  This is probably something we can  all relate to.

In my own opinion, Constitution Week is a good time to give thanks to the founders of our Democratic system and to express our thoughts about their legacy —  hopefully in a more positive light.

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Jeitler is a student in Media Comm 132.  He may be contacted at [email protected]