Since before I was born my mother has kept in her purse a copy of a booklet titled “American Legacy” put out by the Center for Civic Education that includes the Constitution and “other essential documents of American History.” It’s an idea fostered by my grandmother, a life long learner, both passionate about history and an English teacher by nature. This habit has become an almost symbolic practice: Taking the ideas our country is built on with you as you go, and not forgetting them in the way it’s so easy to do in the modern age.