I visited New York over Christmas and was glad to find Manhattan’s Upper West Side much as it always has been. Parking was still hard to find, and parking enforcement was very visible. People were crossing the streets with and without a “walk” sign, and yellow taxis were plentiful on Broadway and on Columbus avenues. Most importantly, there were no soldiers. Nor did I see any ominously masked people or big black cars with dark tinted windows traveling in caravan with police cars.
How different the Upper West Side felt from my Washington, DC neighborhood. How much less ominous. Although we are no less peaceful than Manhattanites, pay plenty of taxes, and vote in local and presidential elections, we live without the buffer of statehood between daily city life and an unscrupulous president seeking imperial powers. A few days in New York offers new meaning and perspective to the important protections statehood under our federal system.
Remember what we learned in school. With the Revolution the colonies became independent states. As sovereign states they agreed to grant specific powers to the new federal government. All powers not specifically granted to the new government, however, remained under the authority of the individual states. It was a compromise in shared sovereignty forged by necessity and adopted with high hopes and trepidation…