Nathan Bond, a Fresno California 10-year-old memorized the entire United States Constitution spending up to four hours a day over the last several months – 137 days in total. His mother recorded it and posted it on her YouTube channel earlier in September. You can view the 25-minute video at YouTube. Nathan dressed up for the occasion wearing a blue suit and red power tie and provided patriotic symbols in the background.
When interviewed by Fox News after the video was posted, Nathan said every day while memorizing the Constitution he would have a segment of 40 words to learn; before adding the new 40 words for each day he would recite everything he had memorized up to that point. But the process began even before those months. When Nathan began homeschooling, his father challenged him to memorize the Declaration of Independence, which he did.
As Nathan tells it, once he memorized the Declaration of Independence, he fell in love with America and what it stands for. The boy who spent months memorizing a document that few Americans have ever read in its entirety has an even longer-term goal. He wants to one day be President of these United States. When the commentators asked him if he knew when he would be eligible to run for that office, he answered without hesitation that he would need to be 35 years old.
A child with that much drive to keep learning the Constitution over more than four months may well be on the ballot in 2044, the first presidential election year he will qualify as far as age goes.
Just as interesting as the drive this young man has to learn about and revere the standards set by our nation’s founding fathers, may be the comments made on various sites running this story. There were the occasional attaboys, but there were a lot of people turning it into a chance to excoriate the current candidate they don’t want in office.
Reading those comments can be a bit depressing because doing so is a reminder of what that honest and high-minded young man will face in the 28 years before he will be able to run as POTUS. He believes in America, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, and they are strong and good in his sight – as well they should be. As a nation, we have a lot of mending and healing to do to make it truly worthy of the ideals seen in Nathan Bond’s eyes. It’s our job to fight for exactly that.
Nevertheless, when asked to recite his favorite 40 or so words from the Constitution, Nathan didn’t hesitate, he quoted the words used to swear in the President. Good job kid – you do us proud.
Jay Sekulow is the Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice.
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