Ruth robbins. It is a pleasure to welcome you here tonight for the program. Before we get started just a couple of quick things. If you have electronic devices, now is a good time to turn them off. As usual, there is no photography and no filming. Also, if you are wondering what the equipment is in the back of the room, it is cspan. So show your nicest smile, brush her hair, get ready in case you get a cameo. And when we get to the q a part, there is a microphone in the back of the room and we will let you know when it is time. You will just line up there to ask you questions. It is always worthwhile revisiting the documents but set us apart from british rule and created the framework for our government. Tonight our guest speaker kermit , roosevelt, explores these documents and shares interpretation of their meaning and relevance. Professor roosevelt teaches constitutional law at the university of pennsylvania law school. He was born and raised in d. C. And attended Harvard University and yale law. Before joining the penn faculty, he served as a law clerk to Supreme CourtJustice David souter. Book, making sense of Supreme Court decisions, sets standards by which citizens can determine whether the Supreme Court is abusing its authority to interpret the constitution. He also teaches creative writing and is the author of two novels in the shadow of the law and , allegiance. Please join me in a round of applause for professor roosevelt. [applause] dr. Roosevelt thank you. Thank you all for coming. Happy super tuesday. [laughter] you know, of course, it is super tuesday. The democrats are in the process of choosing their nominee. Later on we will have the general election and choose our president. That choice will reflect something about who we are as a nation. And that is what i wanted to talk about tonight, who we are, are, andcide who we what our sense of ourselves means for our relationship to the constitution and our sense of ourselves as a country. And as a people. So, who are we . We are americans. This is the most american slide i could find. [laughter] but what does it mean to be an american, and how do we decide that . What gives us a sense of what america means . The first point i want to make is that stories do that. Stories tell us who we are. They organize the world for us. This is true of individuals. When people think about their lives, they tend to think about them in narrative form. They find meaning in experience. They find themes, heroes, villains. James joyce said this is the artists task, transforming the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everlasting life. In that sense, we are all artists, we are all the authors of our own stories. Not because we decide what happens we dont actually get to decide that but because we decide what it means. We decide how it is interpreted and usually we pick interpretations that flatter ourselves. We end up being the heroes of our own stories. This is true for individuals and it is also true for nations. People have a sense of National Identity that comes from stories about the nations history. And thats what i am going to talk about tonight. I am going to talk about different stories of america. Where they come from, how they relate to each other. But before i do that want to say thing about stories, which is they are powerful. So as you heard, i am a law professor. Before that i was a lawyer. I was doing a pellet litigation, apellateas litigation, and it was my job in some ways it is still my job to make people agree with me about the correct understanding of the law. I learned something while working as a lawyer. That has been reinforced from experiences with legal scholarship, which is that sometimes, on some issues, you can present a strong, logical argument and people will change their minds. Sometimes the voice that persuades is an analytical voice. But thats not true all the time. And in particular, it is not true if youre dealing with an issue that relates to peoples identities, to their sense of self. In those kinds of situations, you can make the best and most logical argument in the world and it will not have any effect. Because logic doesnt make people change their minds about who they are. There has been some social Psychology Research on this, and it shows people are actually incredibly resistant to reason logical argument if it conflicts or with their narrative of the world. If it conflicts with the story they tell themselves to make sense of the world. They did a study where the two where they took people with certain beliefs. In this study, it was about Climate Change. So they took Climate Change skeptics and Climate Change believers come and they took the group and expose them to facts that suggested their beliefs were wrong. So the groups got different information. In each case, information that challenged their belief. You would have thought this would make them less confident. Result was the people on both sides expressed greater confidence in those beliefs because they thought a threat to their identity, and basically they responded by reaffirming it. Those beliefs were not just factual beliefs about the world, they were beliefs that signal membership in a community. And because of that, they were a part of peoples identity, part of the story they told themselves about themselves. Here is an ordinary factual question is it raining outside or not . Your belief about that does not relate to your identity at all. And with questions like that people do change their mind if , they are presented with contrary evidence. Things, withr beliefs that are connected to identity, you cant dislodge those beliefs by fact. Or by logical argument. The analytical voice just doesnt persuade. So, what does . This is another thing i learned as a lawyer. I think it may be the most important thing that i learned as a lawyer, and it is something i try to teach my students in the creative writing seminar i teach at the law school. If you are wondering why there is a creative writing at the law school, this is why. Because it actually can make you a more effective lawyer, because the narrative voice persuades. To change beliefs connected to identity, to the story we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it, you have to offer a different story. You have to offer a story that opens up a different way of understanding the world. And you can change peoples mind. You can change their self conception if you talk to them the way that their interior voice does. And for most people on these important issues, the interior voice is not giving arguments, it is telling stories. Stories tell us who we are, both as individuals and as countries. Stories are powerful. Frequently, they cant be dislodged by reasoned argument or logical analysis. You might have heard some people say, it takes a theory to be a it takes aay story to be a story. What i want to do now is tell you some of the stories about america. About who we are. These different stories say Different Things about the past but, perhaps more important, they have different ideas about the essence of america. About what it means to be american. Im going to compare them, analyze them, i will be doing some logical argument i am a law professor, i cant really get away from that but in the end, i hope you like the same story i do, not because of the arguments, but because it is a better story. It shows us in a better light. Its more inclusive. Its more optimistic. It is, i am going to say, more american. But i am going to start with what i call the standard story. And according to this story, history ofstory, the america as a nation starts with the declaration of independence. Here we go. The declaration. In a standard story should be weilar to you, this is what say in our basic celebrations of america, the standard story says, long ago back in 1776, our , great founders wrote down some wonderful principles. They called these selfevident truths. Created equal, endowed by all men are their creator with inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our founders fought a war for those principles. And they built a society around them. And the constitution was their vehicle for carrying those disciplines into execution. Hold on. There is the constitution. The constitution, according to standard story, sets out our fundamental values. What are our fundamental values . Liberty and equality. It tells us what it means to be american. It tells us who we are. From where the 200 years, our constitution has served us well because of the wisdom of the founders. Our tasks as americans is to live up to their example. To fulfill their vision of america. To be true to the principles that started in the declaration of independence were codified in the constitution. American history, the standard story, has not always been easy because we have not always lived up to those principles. We had slavery which is in direct conflict with the declaration of independence but , we fought a war for those principles again. The civil war was fought in the name of the principles of the declaration of independence. How do we know that . Abraham lincoln said so. That is an actual photo of lincoln delivering the gettysburg address. It is not very good but he is there somewhere. [laughter] dr. Roosevelt in the gettysburg address lincoln looks back to the declaration as the birth of the nation. It takes a little bit of arithmetic to figure this out but he is giving the address in 1863 and says four score and seven years ago and subtract that from 1863 and what do you get . You get 1776 and the declaration of independence. Lincoln invoked this principles and says the nation is conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. The civil war is a challenge but also an opportunity for americans to move forward, to realize the promise of the declaration. Of course, the standard story concedes that even after the civil war, the work is not done. Racism and discrimination persist. The Civil Rights Movement rises up to challenge the starker aspects of American Life. It does so again in the name of the declaration. The Civil Rights Movement sponsors the march on washington in 1963. Hisin luther king jr. Gives i have a dream speech from the steps of the lincoln memorial. This is a much better photo. [laughter] dr. Roosevelt he talks about the founders, the architects of our public, the people who wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and declaration of independence. They promised, he said, black as well as white would be guaranteed unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You have fallen short he says. Integration, the right to vote, and reaches of the promises made. He dreams of a day when we will rise up and live out the true meaning that all men are created equal. Maybe that day has not come yet. The standard story concedes but it is getting closer because the story of america is living up to the ideals of our founders. The ideals that started us on this journey. We move forward but we are guided by the past, by the spirit of 1776. We remember, as john f. Kennedy said, that we heirs of that first generation and carry that banner, the flag of freedom, the flag of equality. Here you have three men marching forward and in the background, the betsy ross flag. 13 stars arranged in the circle. This is what i am going to call our standard story. This is what we usually tell ourselves to explain who we are. Of the firstirs revolution. American history starts with that declaration. It starts on a high note and we are basically trying to sustain it. We are trying to live up to the ideals of the founders and signers. We are following their wisdom and for 200 years it has pointed the way to a better america and a more Perfect Union. I am going to tell you a couple of other stories. First, want to say a little bit about this one. The first thing to note is it is a backward looking story. The declaration is the central document in the story, it may be more important and more Truly American than even the constitution. The founders constitution is important, too. The constitution has the answers to our current problems. America seems to be adrift, people think. What is the solution . Go back to the wisdom of the founders. Focus on the constitution. Focus on the original understanding of the constitution. Live up to the ideals of the founders, be more like them, the way forward is by recovering the greatness of the past. Story. Backward looking second, this is a Success Story. We have had our difficulties but back, america always succeeds. We always triumph and why is that . It is because the wisdom of the founders and the ideals of the declaration. The civil war is probably the best example. It is a terrible war, yes, that the ideals of the declaration triumph and we improve. Take a big step board through the drafters of the constitution to us in the present day. We are the heirs of that first revolution and this is related to the fact that it is a Success Story because it is telling us basically we are the same people we have always been. We are the same nation. Declaration,f the the drafters of the constitution, they got it right. We are living in the world they designed and fighting for the ideals they championed. This is a nice story in a lot of ways and you can see why it appeals to people. It says we are basically good, we americans. We start out with good ideals, we dont always live up to them, but we are Getting Better. There is a sense of inevitable progress and when things look dark, answers exist if we look back to find them. There is authority in the past in a moment of unity everyone can rally around, everyone can share in. Everyone feels a connection to the founding. One problem is that is really it is really not true. I know i have said logical arguments do not dislodge stories, but im going to give you a logical analysis of the story, which might not change your mind, but i hope it will provoke you to question the story a bit. I am going to present you with some claims you will find surprising, that you dont hear in the standard story, you dont hear very much at all actually. Heres the first one. The declaration of independence does not actually set out our modern values of liberty and equality. In fact, it is consistent with slavery. This should be a surprise. Item think anyone else says this. Often if you are the only person saying something, it is crazy and you are wrong, but hear me out because i have become quite convinced of this. Generally speaking, people say of course, there is an obvious contradiction between the declaration of independence and slavery, but look at the declaration and its values. Here is the preamble that people usually Pay Attention to. That is appropriate. After the preamble and a little bit of political philosophy we get grievances against king george, bad things he has done. Those are not as important. That is evidence the founders are setting out in support of their argument but they are not the argument. The declaration of independence is an argument of political philosophy, and argument that tries to establish colonies are justified in declaring independence and throwing off the authority of the british empire. To understand the declaration, the crucial thing is to understand how the argument works and how it makes use of these fundamental principles. I want to talk about the argument it doesnt make, the argument against slavery. Why do people think the declaration is inconsistent with slavery . Because of these selfevident truths, all men are created by their creator with inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now, are those principles inconsistent with slavery . You can start with them and make an antislavery argument. It would go like this. People are created equal therefore no one is entitled, by birth, to demand someone else be his slave. Someone might have the power to enslave someone else doing so. Could be considered a form of liberty just doing what you want to do but it conflicts with the slaves natural right to liberty that is an infringement on natural rights, that is true. That is not justified because in the political world, there are lots of infringements upon peoples natural liberty. If you use your liberty to steal someone elses property, we will lock you up and take away your liberty. If you commit a serious enough crime, we will take your life. That is what we do to our own citizens, members of our Political Community because those are justified. The hallmark of Civil Society is when people come together to form a society, they surrender aspects of their natural liberty. Their natural liberty is taken away from them. This is true of people who form a community, of the insiders, and more true of people outside our Political Community, so how does the nation relate to noncitizens . Sometimes quite harshly. If you are an enemy soldier we will take your life without worrying too much about your natural right. That is justified because we are protecting our Political Community. Different factors come into play when we talk about outsiders. It is more complicated when we talk about a situation where slavery exists are ready and the choice is not should we start slavery but should we end slavery . , and possible to think Thomas Jefferson did think that slavery never should have come to america, but the answer to the second question was no. Existed,t slavery maintaining it was the best option. What have i said so far . From the principles of the declaration, you can get an argument that slavery is a violation of natural rights but that does not tell you slavery is wrong because some are justified and that is particularly true if you are talking about outsiders, people not members of your Political Community, and more true if slavery exists already. To get to the conclusion slavery is wrong, you need another step. You need to say the justifications put forward for slavery are in adequate. What were the justifications . Some people supported slavery as sayingive, good thing, slaves get christianity and civilization. Then there were people who did not think slavery was good but thought slavery should be continued in america. They said slaves if freed could not survive on their own, could not be assimilated