Section 1. Findings.
The General Assembly finds that:
(1) The Bicentennial of the Constitutional Convention's adoption of the Constitution at the Pennsylvania State House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, occurs on September 17, 1987; the Bicentennial of the Pennsylvania ratification of the Constitution occurs on December 12, 1987; and the Bicentennial of the national adoption of the Constitution, by ratification of states, occurs on June 21, 1988.
(2) The anniversary dates of the national ratification of the United States Constitution's Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments abolishing slavery, preventing abridgment of citizenship rights, guaranteeing equal rights for all, regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude, and the granting of suffrage to women should be appropriately observed during the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution.
(3) The Constitution enunciates the limitations on government, the inalienable citizen rights and the timeless principles of individual liberty and responsibility and equality before law for the people of the United States of America.
(4) This document has set an enduring example of representative democracy for the world.
(5) The maintenance of the common principles that animate and govern our Republic depend upon a knowledge and understanding of their roots and origins.
(6) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, since its birth, attended by William Penn's prayer that it would become the "seed of a Nation," earned, through peace and war, the role of gracious and learned host for the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
(7) Pennsylvania's people, communities and Commonwealth government provided America with debate, study, experimentation, leadership and strength indispensable to the formation of the Republic in the process of the convention adoption of the Constitution on September 17, 1787, the issuance of a State House call for a convention to consider ratification and the Commonwealth ratification of the United States Constitution on December 12, 1787; and
(8) It is the privilege and duty of every Pennsylvanian to join in a Commonwealth and national observance of the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution with pride, dedication and love of heritage.