D.C. Voting Rights Act

“If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.”

--Carl Schurz--

“If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.”

--Aristotle--

“There's the country of America, which you have to defend, but there's also the idea of America. America is more than just a country, it's an idea. An idea that's supposed to be contagious.”

--Bono--

“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens.”

--George W. Bush--

The quote by President Bush sums up what it means to be an American. To me it means a belief in an idea that government is formed for the benefit of its citizens and not the other way around. To me it means a fundamental understanding that the greatest benefit a nation can bestow upon its citizens is freedom. Freedom. That is a word that is often used but never really explored. Well, I am going to explore it in this article.

To me freedom comes from choice. There are a great number of choices to be made during a person’s life. A person must choose what profession to follow. A person must choose what, if any, person to bond with in order to raise a family. Those are all very important choices, but no citizen of a nation is free without the ability to choose that nation’s leadership. Yes. I am referring to the right to vote. Any citizen of a nation that does not have the ability to vote for the very government that claims authority over him/her is not free. As Americans we are a nation of fifty free states and a capital that has been held mute for far too long.

Yesterday, January 9, 2007, the DC Voting Rights Act was reintroduced to Congress by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va). If passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate and signed into law by the President, the District of Columbia would receive a vote in the House of Representatives for the first time in the history of this country. The bill would also give Utah another representative in the House, which would mean that the partisan balance of power would be unaffected. Please call your Congressman or Congresswoman and your Senators and ask them to support this bill.

This bill represents a step towards freedom for over a half a million Americans that are trapped without a voice and a vote simply because they live within a ten square mile loop hole on American soil. The residents of the District of Columbia have been kept without a vote because of arrogance, ignorance and now partisanship. None of those reasons can past the muster of a belief in freedom. The bottom line is that for all the lip service that many of us Americans give to being patriotic now is our time to demonstrate our patriotism. Now is our time to demonstrate our love for what makes America great. In order to really love America then you must be in love with its principles, its ideas, its beliefs. There is no more fundamental American belief than a belief in freedom; a belief in one man or woman, one vote.

Right now Congress has the last say on every matter in the District of Columbia, regardless of whether it is a national or local matter. Yet the people of the District of Columbia have no vote in Congress. No vote means no voice in Congress. If you believe in freedom do the patriotic thing. Pick up your phone or sit down at your desk, and call, write, or email your representative and senators and tell them to stand up for our principles as Americans and FREE THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA! They can start by voting for the D.C. Voting Rights Act.

Comments

[Jenny]

Bart,

I think you have expounded generously on the comments of the President. Is it wishful thinking that the President has been lifted 'above [his] interests.' Is Iraq for our 'interests' or for a select few? As the President of the Congressional Black Caucus said recently, we do not need a call for more troops, we need a call for truth.

More directly related to your article, if the Senate and the House pass the bill (which they will not) the President would not sign it. A vote (a voice from DC residents) from DC is a Democratic one, not the other way around. DC residents are entitled to represenation because we are taxed, federally, as citizens, without represenation in our Congress, and that is unconstitutional. So long as the good Senator from South Dakota stays with us, medically speaking, we keep the Senate. But, not all Democrats are ready for this move, and the groundswell of support from the American public has not been had. It seems we remain out of luck (...i.e. constitutionally ignored).