Message on the Observance of Brotherhood/Sisterhood Week, February 15-21, 1987

This year marks the 53rd annual Brotherhood/Sisterhood Week, sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. I am pleased to note that the theme of 1987's celebration is: "This is my Constitution. I'm putting my name on the line."

The Constitution is the anchor of our Republic. Through it, we are all equal under the law, just as we are brothers and sisters in the sight of the Almighty. This bicentennial year is a singularly appropriate time to reflect on its importance to each of us.

Although the Founding Fathers could scarcely have imagined the society we have become 200 years after they hammered out the Constitution, this magnificent document remains as relevant and timely as the day the final draft was signed. The principles it embodies are timeless: protection of the individual against the state, the separation of powers among these different branches of the national government and a Federal system preserving the role of the States and, most important of all, the recognition that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed.

I call upon all Americans to join the National Conference of Christians and Jews in celebrating the vibrant, richly diverse society the Constitution has made possible in America. As we observe Brotherhood/Sisterhood Week, let us all put our names on the line as our Founding Fathers did; and let us pledge to uphold the ideals that have kept us, in all our racial and religious variety, one nation under God.

RONALD REAGAN