When did America go from “These United States of America” to “The United States” (i.e. singular)? When did citizens in this country stop identifying primarily with their state (be it Massachusetts, South Carolina, or Virginia) and instead call themselves first and foremost “Americans”?
While we celebrate our country’s birthday tomorrow, many of us are unaware of how the U.S. Constitution — and our culture around the role of the federal government — has changed since the founding. Many of those changes are due to the Civil War and President Lincoln.
Berkeley Law’s constitutional law expert (and my colleague and faculty director) Dan Farber discusses these changes on the Weekly Constitutional podcast, “Abe Lincoln’s Constitution”:
Worth reflecting on this subject as we celebrate the 4th during turbulent political times.
My colleague and faculty director, Dan Farber, described in an op-ed on CNN.com the multiple ways that we can clean our air, from the local to state to federal levels. Dan gives a nice shout-out to my book Railtown, using it to show how Los Angeles could implement more low-cost solutions to get residents to use transit over driving.
In addition to more public transit, Dan highlights electric vehicles, clean fleets such as cabs, and EPA regulation of power plants as necessary steps to make our air cleaner and improve public health and the climate as a result.
Environmental law expert and UC Berkeley Law professor Dan Farber reviewed Railtown today, and he provided an accurate and insightful summary of the LA rail story:
It took several decades to get the current rail system built. There were many detours and delays along the way. Mass transit in LA has to confront not only a sprawling geography but a sprawling political situation, which meant that the route was set as much by neighborhood politics as planning needs. For instance, although Wilshire was a prime candidate for rail, because of its population density. But environmental icon Henry Waxman blocked the ideal route, seemingly in order to protect a neighborhood with which he had a class connection. Partly because of political delays and poor management, construction costs went way over budget.
Overall, he described the book as a “fascinating account of LA’s move away from an almost religious attachment to the automobile. The LA story has some important implications for other cities.” You can read more from Dan on the Legal Planet blog, to which I am also contributor.
