Washington, D.C.: Your Colony

I could go snarky:  Hail, colonial masters!

I could play victim:  “Nobody knows the trouble… ”  

Perhaps if I just explained clearly enough:  The injustices perpetrated on the citizens of the District of Columbia were instituted with its establishment in 1801… . 

But really, I just want to tell you how it feels to be a disenfranchised citizen of this country by simple virtue of living in my hometown, Washington, D.C., surrounded on the north, south, east and west by the United States of America. 

And, my fellow Grinnellians, it feels lousy. Here’s why:

• Congress is in charge of the District of Columbia.  We have a delegate in the U.S. House who cannot vote,  no Senators, and a home rule charter with local government responsible for day-to-day affairs.  
• Our mayor and council are subject to the authority of Congress, which must approve all actions, including our annual budget — only 25 percent of which is federally funded.   
• Congress imposes any law it pleases, regardless of the wishes of the 632,323 citizens of the District of Columbia.  Examples include instituting public charter schools after we had voted to keep neighborhood schools, instituting the death penalty after we voted against it, and trading away the district’s right to fund abortions for low-income women in a deal between House Speaker John Boehner and the president.  
• Congress prevents us from collecting taxes on wages earned in D.C. if workers live elsewhere, so every year D.C. taxpayers subsidize Maryland and Virginia to the tune of more than $2 billion.  And we do pay taxes — there are 18 states that generate less federal tax revenue than the District of Columbia.  

We have historically had a population on par with eight other states; we send our young people to war; we fulfill all responsibilities of citizenship. And yet we are, functionally, a colony. Revolutions have started for less cause. 

 Now, I understand why D.C. citizens mostly just keep their heads down, go to work, and tend to their families rather than spend precious energy on attempting equal standing with the rest of the country. It is easy to become stuck in a colonial mentality and feel powerless to effect change. And the rest of the United States, also stuck in a colonial mentality, doesn’t help by making D.C. the butt of jokes and rendering our difficulties as character flaws (historically often with a racist flavor).  It’s easier to dismiss our complaints and to refuse to see how keeping us voiceless and voteless undermines civic discourse and democracy and tempts people to just “get mine.” 

More objective observers, however, judge us pretty harshly. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have both declared the United States to be in violation of international human rights treaties, with the OSCE citing the U.S. government’s obligation to ensure “equal voter rights” for all U.S. citizens — including the people of Washington, D.C.  It’s a relief to know that external onlookers confirm our reality, when we — outraged by the latest Congressional action — are often labeled as a bunch of overreacting whiners.

Things were looking up in 1964, when I graduated from Grinnell College and moved here. With the passage of the 23rd Amendment, D.C. citizens cast their votes for president for the first time.  Another Constitutional amendment in the 1970s would have granted D.C. equal representation, but it died in state legislatures. More than 60 percent of D.C. citizens voted for statehood in the 1980s; it was last considered in Congress in 1993.  

Yet, my fellow Grinnellians, there is hope. I am part of a D.C.-wide Statehood Coalition that includes native-born Washingtonians, longtime civil rights activists, and relative newcomers who are horrified to find themselves without a vote because they moved to D.C. With determination and hope, The New Columbia Admission Act introduced again this year in both the House and Senate (House Resolution 292 and Senate Bill 132) would first shrink D.C. to the area around the Washington Mall, Capitol, White House, and other federal buildings.  (The district was last shrunk on July 9, 1846, when the Virginia portions of the original District of Columbia were returned to Virginia.)  Then, it would admit the residential and commercial portions of the current District of Columbia as the 51st U.S. state — the state of New Columbia.  All we need is a majority vote in Congress to pass this legislation.   

This, my fellow Grinnellians, is where you come in.

America can do better! Grinnellians believe in social justice — not to mention self-governance! I am almost prayerful that you will pick up your phone, contact your voting legislators and tell them you don’t approve of their role as D.C.’s overseers. After all, if the Grinnell 14 could help bring about the end of nuclear testing shortly before I arrived here, imagine what a few more of us could do to bring the last American colony into the union.