this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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The 27th Amendment was ratified in 1992
1992 was 32 years ago. Adults are 18. People born in 2006 are adults.
You shut your damn mouth right now!
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck
2006 was only 4 years ago, right? RIGHT?
Still though, the average age in the US is 38 so for most people, there was an amendment ratified during their lifetime.
Speaking for me personally, I would consider anything that happened in my parents generation to be a recent collective memory, at least until I get to the age my parents were when they had me. Sure I wasn't alive during the moon landing or JFK assassination, but they're still pretty recent events in the grand scheme of US history.
Damnit now there's something that I'm upset about being above average for.
The 27th amendment was sent to the states by the first congress allong with the 10 that would become known as the bill of rights. This group also included a still unratified amendment that would increase the size of the house of representatives based on population (as of the 2020 census, today's house would have about 6600 members).
The way the 27th amendment got ratified is a truly inspiring story of political activism. It was largely forgotten about until 1982, when Gregory Watson wrote a paper arguing that 18th century proposal could still be ratified. This paper received a C in Watson's undergraduate political science class. This injustice led Watson to lead a 10 year campaign to ratify the amendment, which ultimately succeeded in 1992.
This scandal was so big, that Watson's professor fled academia [0]. Eventually, Professor Waite was tracked down to her family's farm, and in 2017 submitted a grade change revising the paper to an A. Later that year, the Texas legislature passed a resolution on the subject:
Thus finally closing the chapter on one of this nation's most infamous grading disputes.
[0] Historians dispute the fact thar Proffesor Waite's decision to leave Academia, which occured prior to the ratification of the 27th amendment, was in any way related to this.