Re “Many of our personal freedoms we take for granted today - freedom of speech, the press, assembly and religion, the right to bear arms, and other rights - began on this day in 1791 following Virginia’s vote.”
The good intentions of the author notwithstanding, that is incorrect!
Our rights are GOD GIVEN! God has never not existed; and, the rights He gave us have existed since we first existed. They were not granted by some piece of paper that happened to come into existence in 1791! The Constitution merely serves as a buffer to help protect us from a government that may wish to deprive us from using our God given rights. It grants nothing!
It is a sad commentary on human nature that the Bill of Rights proved to be necessary as amendments to a Constitution that granted the Federal Goverment only limited powers.
It only took about 150 years for the statists to blow through those constraints with lawyer’s convoluted logic (e.g., Wickard vs. Filmore, ... since the Feds have the power to regulate interstate commerce, they have the power to regulate anything which might remotely affect interstate commerce), and then blow right through the bill of rights itself (e.g., asset forfiture ... we aren’t accusing you of a crime, we are accusing this money we are stealing of a crime, and money has no rights ... Sure you have the right to privacy of your papers and records, but when you cross this border with a laptop, you have to give us your password so we can see what is in it).
Instead of having a celebration of the Bill of Rights, we should be holding a wake for its demise.