Monongahela Historical Society to host free classes about U.S. founding documents

The four-week session will offer insight into the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

With the United States celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, the Monongahela Area Historical Society is offering a free, four-part course to revisit some of the nation’s important historical documents.

The semiquincentennial, which takes place July 4, marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Nationwide celebrations, led by the nonpartisan America250 commission and Freedom 250 initiatives, will feature events, educational programs and fireworks to reflect on the nation’s history and future.

The historical society class will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. April 13, April 27, May 11 and June 1 in the LaCarte Room of Mon Valley YMCA, located at 101 Taylor Run Road in Carroll Township.

“We like to offer programs for the community through the historical society, and most of the programs that we do are related to local history and local events,” historical society president Laura Magone said. “With it being the 250th anniversary of the country, we thought that it might be nice to do a refresher on the founding documents. This is a perfect year to do some sort of a refresher course.”

Class topics will be the Declaration of Independence April 13, the Constitution April 27 and the Bill of Rights May 11, followed by a June 1 reflection class to see how they apply to daily life.

A release from the society states that these documents are essential for maintaining a self-governing republic. The class offers a refresher and practical applications of these critical documents — emphasizing the nation’s core principles.

The goal of the class is to understand America’s founding documents, according to Magone, since many people only learned a little about them in school. She emphasized that it’s not a political class.

“This is a historic time because we’re not only celebrating this anniversary, but in many ways, our country is polarized,” Magone said. “This program is not going to be political, but I think it will be nice if people with different backgrounds, different political backgrounds, can come together to learn and to remember what the original intentions for starting this country were.”

Magone and the historical society hope that other people are as interested as they are, and she said the YMCA was excited to jump on board for the classes.

She added that understanding these documents is fundamental to who people are as Americans, saying it’s important for people to make time to remember their citizenship and to not take it for granted.

Each participant will receive a pocket-sized copy of all of the documents being taught in the class. The class is offered free of charge as a gift to the community, but space is limited.

Retired Washington County President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca will teach the class after Magone reached out to her because they wanted someone who knows the documents well.

O’Dell Seneca, who was born in New Eagle and grew up in Bentleyville, received an undergraduate political science degree from West Virginia University and a law degree from Duquesne University.

She practiced law in Washington County for 15 years before she became the first woman judge in the county, and served 23 years. After retiring 11 years ago, she created and taught a political science class at Washington Jefferson College for about five years.

“With my background in the law and on the bench, as well as teaching political science in Pennsylvania law, it interests me,” O’Dell Seneca said. “Even though I wasn’t a history major, I am a big historian fan, and I’ve read so much about that era.”

O’Dell Seneca wants to give some background and history to the documents, and some of the players and personalities involved. Classes will be open to questions and discussions.

She said there are a lot of wrong perceptions about these documents and more people should be informed about them.

“So I think there’s a lot of things about that era, about those documents, how they came into being, why certain things happened with them, because they had to be compromises, you had to give and take, or it never existed,” O’Dell Seneca said. “Now a lot of the issues that involve, especially the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, are coming to the forefront today.

“I think there’s so much that’s been going on in our country recently that there’s a misconception about some of those documents, and there’s different perspectives of that, as to whether or not, the Constitution in particular, is a living, breathing document. I hope people are interested in it.”

People living outside the area are encouraged to send an email to mahs15063@gmail.com if they would like to attend virtually. If the in-person class fills up, seats may be added for local people to attend virtually.

Those looking to register in person can go to https://events.ticketleap. com/tickets/mahs-5/our-american- roots-remembering-our-founding- documents.