Explaining The Bill of Rights

Essentially, The Bill of Rights are the really a continuation of what the founders of America wanted to have reflected in the Constitution.  Several States and leaders expressed reservations about the new Constitution because it did not guarantee individual liberties.  The Bill of Rights was the remedy for that discrepancy.  For a copy of the text of the Amendments, check out billofrights.com.  The purpose of this article is not to go over the text, but to discuss their meaning, both at the time they were written and now.  I hope that the reader who is unfamiliar with them will read the full text.  And the job was not finished with the Bill Of Rights.  It would be some time before slavery was ended in America, or women were granted the right to vote, for example.  And this goes to the heart of a debate that has simmered for years and now threatens to flare into a raging fire.  Is the Constitution static, with little or no room for change or interpretation, or is it flexible, able to grow in a changing world?
First, let's look at some of the more important aspects of the Amendments.