There are rules for amending the constitution. It's hard to do, because the drafters wanted to make sure the document itself was only changed when an overwhelming majority agreed. Such as giving women the right to vote. Such as giving complete control of alcohol sales to the individual states.
As for an unchanging document - hogwash. The constitution changes every year - in Supreme Court decisions. A right to contract used to exist in the constitution: it was why an 80-hour workweek, unfair labor conditions, and child labor could not be legally stopped. Then, one Supreme Court (or a few)decision changed all that. "Separate but equal" was once acceptable (Plessy v. Fergusen), but the Supreme Court later declared "separate is never equal" (Brown v. Bd. of Education of Topeka). The constitution changes all the time.
The secret is not in the document itself, but in society's understanding of it. As well, most states have redone their constitutions in the last 3/4 century. And since you, as the citizen of the state, are entitled to protections under both documents, the update you're yearning for has already happened - you get the state constitution's protections and rules where they go further than the federal constitutuion.
I would say that most countries would tell us that America is not conscious enough of the past. In fact, it has been the major catalyst for change in the world this century, for better or worse. I see America, as a persona, as a young spoiled teenager-with-a-nose-ring country with all of Daddy's millions to spend as it pleases. Quite modern, wouldn't you say?
Guns -that's another topic. Clearly, as evidenced in the polls and on this board, Americans do not want to give up their love affair with firearms.
[ 10-21-2002, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]