The more I teach, the more I learn. This was taken from an article in an SAT-type exam (I cannot site the source, because it is not listed):
"The Constitution forbids Congress from building roads, because the framers of the Constitution understood road building as the first step toward creating a tyrannical, centralizing national government, and while the Supreme Court had years earlier decided that the right to establish roads stands implicit in the Constitution, no amount of loose interpretation could get past the explicit prohibition on building. Congress might declare a highway or rural cart path a post road, then, but it could not build a road unless the road served essentially as a weapon." [italics mine]
The article went on to explain that the highway system was developed post-WWII as the Military and Interstate Highway System in response to Cold War tactical scenarios. Put a guided missile on a train and the tracks could be easily targeted and severed. Put a missile on a truck and keep it moving on a highway and no Soviet missile could target it. When paved surfaces are cratered by bombs, the holes left behind are easily filled by bulldozers. Even damage from A-bombs and H-bombs could be put right in a day or two (barring radiation poisoning).
Road grades and curvatures, overpass and underpass heights and widths, are all set at military standard (so something like, say, a *tank* can get through with ease).
Powerlines do not border most highways so that military aircraft may land safely.
And you thought all that work on the highways was for your sake? So that civilians could drive swiftly and safely? Silly you.
Gives a whole new perspective on the saying, "All roads lead to Rome," doesn't it?
17 Days til the Burn!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hmmm. I think I've heard some of this somewhere before, but not put all together like this. I remember reading that Pres. Eisenhower was the instigator behind the whole interstate highway system. Maybe it was just done under his watch. I tend to see presidents as somewhat of a "figurehead" anyway; the facade of the real power.
Post a Comment