Ahead of a 2020 election that is sure to include debates around socialist policy ideas, the purpose of the electoral college and how racism still displays itself, Grand Lake\u2019s eighth annual Constitution Week isn\u2019t shying away from the hard topics.<\/p>\n
Kicking off Monday, this year\u2019s Constitution Week features an array of speakers and scholars to discuss various elements of the country\u2019s governing document. Then the week concludes on Saturday with a parade, fireworks, a barbecue contest with $10,000 prize, live music and keynote speaker and actor Kevin Sorbo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe theme this year is promoting an educated citizenry,\u201d said Tom Goodfellow, organizer and founder of Constitution Week in Grand Lake.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s festivities also include the event\u2019s first-ever panel. Lily Tang Williams, Karin Smith, Aida Witt and Mailyn Salabarria Cappuccio will be sharing their experiences with socialism living in countries like China, Cuba and Sweden.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing that we are supporters of the constitution, we\u2019re going after socialism a little bit this year because we think that a lot of people don\u2019t understand what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Goodfellow said. <\/p>\n
Another topic \u201cripped from the headlines,\u201d as organizer Mike Tompkins put it, is Professor Robert Natelson\u2019s speech on how we choose our president, which will touch on the national discussion around the electoral college and the national popular vote compact.<\/p>\n
Tompkins said they picked speakers and topics that are a part of current political discourse to try to attract younger people, families and others who may not have been to the event before.<\/p>\n
Last year, the event had more attendees than ever before and many speakers had standing room only crowds. However, Goodfellow added that they never know what to expect, but they have strong support from the town.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething like this is always going to get criticism because there are people that love it and people that don\u2019t like it, but the whole idea is to get people to start talking about it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other notable events is the Constitution Trivia on Thursday, which can be played from anywhere because the trivia questions will be aired on local radio station KFFR 88.3 FM, and the flyover salute to veterans.<\/p>\n
Goodfellow said they hope to start conversations with the speakers and week-long event because he feels \u201cit\u2019s not talked about enough,\u201d especially when it comes to the why behind many founding ideals and systems.<\/p>\n
He said that goal goes back to the original idea behind Constitution Week, which was founded by President Dwight Eisenhower and the Daughters of the American Revolution to promote the study of the Constitution and educate people about the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more than just understanding the different branches of government, it\u2019s more of the why,\u201d he said of the upcoming discussions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ahead of a 2020 election that is sure to include debates around socialist policy ideas, the purpose of the electoral college and how racism still displays itself, Grand Lake\u2019s eighth annual Constitution Week isn\u2019t shying away from the hard topics. Kicking off Monday, this year\u2019s Constitution Week features an array of speakers and scholars to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-community","7":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 19:12:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}