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January 3, 2001

A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick

Dear Ocularly Damaged:

The City Council began its new session by poking the District's citizens in the eye with a sharp stick. In response to press questions, Councilmember Jack Evans admitted that on January 16 he will introduce a bill to eliminate term limits for Councilmembers, and that he and Council Chairman Linda Cropp had already corralled eleven votes for it. In 1994, term limits were passed in DC through a citizen-driven initiative that was terribly popular. It won by 62 percent of the vote and passed in all eight wards. But, because terms begun before the initiative went into effect didn't count, the first election in which some Councilmembers would actually be affected would take place in 2004.

As I've been predicting in themail, this Council, which is basically contemptuous of DC citizens -- at least of those who don't give their campaigns the maximum contributions -- is ready, willing, and eager to insult the voters and overturn term limits. Councilmembers talk trash about the importance of the vote for DC citizens, but, as their plan to dump the citizen initiative shows, they don't believe it for a minute.

Councilmembers claim that they are indispensable, that their knowledge and experience makes them irreplaceable. They argue that no one else can do their jobs as well as they, and that term limits would deprive voters of the best possible candidates, themselves. The truth is that they have simply decided that their careers as professional politicians are much more important than the will of the overwhelming majority of the voters. They are convinced that the voters are such stupid fools that by the time they're up for reelection we won't remember that they spit in our eyes, and that they can placate neighborhood associations by pretending to oppose some minor liquor license in the fourth year of their term. They are promising to hold hearings and, as usual, to ignore what the citizens say when we waste our time by testifying at them. By the way, the two Councilmembers who have announced their support for term limits are Kevin Chavous and Adrian Fenty. If Evans is telling the truth, all the others — even those who campaigned as reformers and who pledged to support term limits -- share his contempt for the voters. More information is available at http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/termdefault.htm.

Now that I've gone on too long, one housekeeping matter: many of us in themail are getting to be nearly as long-winded as Councilmembers. Each issue of themail ends with an admonition to keep submissions short. On and off, I send back messages that are too long and ask the senders to cut them and, more rarely, I butcher long messages myself. But, as you can see by the several long messages in this issue, we've getting back to bad habits, and I'm going to be stricter in the future. Promise.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Sharon Ambrose and Constituent Services
Ken Jarboe, kpjarboe@erols.com

While I can not speak about Dennis Dinkel's experiences with Councilmember Ambrose's office, I have found the office very responsive to requests. The problem I see is the lack of responsiveness of the city bureaucracy, not the attention of Ambrose staff.

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Sigh
Ken Katz, kskatz@toad.net

Happy new year, century, and millennium to all. That was the good news. The bad news is that if you are looking for an indication of how the District will be treated by the incoming administration, from the Post we have the following: “Spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters Friday: 'I really don't know what the license plate of the presidential vehicle will be beginning January 20. I thought they could have saved everybody trouble if they just used the first word of those three. It would have been an accurate description of life in the District.'”

It's all right there: the cynical edge, the patronizing tang, and the poisoned view that the only time it is worth talking about DC is when it can be used to make a national political point. And I haven't said anything about the new Congress once again blocking our Representative from a vote in the Committee of the Whole — even when that vote can never really be consequential. In sum: sigh.

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Out with Wyoming, Then
Nick Samuels, nesamuels@starpower.net

On “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles said DC statehood isn't a possibility because its population is too small. According to the Census Bureau's most recently released figures, Wyoming's population is only 479,602, about 7.6 percent smaller than DC's.

Does Sen. Nickles intend to tell the Vice President-elect that his home state [sic] doesn't deserve voting representation in the Congress, either?

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No Real Cultural Identity!
Keith Jarrell, Commissioner 6A03, keithndc@bellatlantic.net

Sad but true. After living in and around Washington DC for nearly 20 years now, I too find myself struggling to answer the question. Why is this? Frankly, I believe it is because of people like Eleanor Holmes Norton, Charlene Drew Jarvis, Harold Brazil, and certainly no one can (nor should they) leave out Marion Barry. It is these people that can never, and will never move beyond the civil rights movement of the early days of Washington and really do anything creative. They are locked in that struggle and are still yet to know that it is over. Through the hard work, undying need of the people, all the people of this city to now move forward in a positive manner to finally get to a level of national respect and maybe even world respect, all they can come up with is: No taxation without representation!

An old, tired statement that has little or no merit and certainly no place in DC politics or any of our lives for that matter. But, it does however allow them something to keep placing the negative overtone in the lives and hearts of the good people that vote them into office time and time again. I am really surprised that Mayor Williams has gotten himself into the middle of this mess. Frankly, I am shocked that he and the others are now spending our tax dollars to finance this whole fiasco! Washington DC, is and will probably always remain a federal city. It isn't all that bad, I think. We have oversight to keep the criminals we elect in check, we have more money available to us than any other city in the free world. The federal government has yet to allow us to go down the tubes completely. Without them, where would we be as a city after Marion Barry? Defunct, to say the least. Who really cares if Norton has voting rights in Congress? She is a far left liberal, with no insight in anything else. Not a bad thing to be a part of any party, but please have the sense and the reasoning to stand for something other than just liberal politics!

They gave us money, structure and essentially bailed us out, dusted us off and set us on our way, again. Mind you that Williams put things in place to continue this direction, but without the fortitude of the congress placing us in the hands of the control board, I am not sure we would have gotten out without being annexed to Maryland. We need new leadership that moves beyond the civil rights days, and we need someone to step up to the plate and offer true leadership to all the people. Someone that cares for each and everyone. Not just some, not just part, not just for the money they can make, not just for the potential advances they can make in life from being elected.

We must care about and include big business, as well as small business, but always keep our senses on the neighborhoods and the tremendous needs that they have first and foremost. We should elect people to represent us that will not sell out to business, but instill values in themselves that we can then instill in our children. We should never lose site of our neighborhoods and the citizens. Certainly finding ways to put them before, not after large ventures such a another convention center that we could have done without. Once again, I draw attention to H Street, NE a destructive mess that was burned by the people of Washington soon after Martin Luther King was killed. More than 30 years later these fine people, that have time and time again been elected to represent us all, turn their backs on the real needs of the people.

H Street NE remains a eye sore to the city, to Capitol Hill, and certainly to the people that are live near it. We need true leadership from our elected officials. Leadership that brings positive change, better streets, better neighborhoods and better city services. We need these things are worse than we need Eleanor Holmes Norton to have voting rights in Congress. Where has she been the last 20 years when it comes to H Street? Where has Harold Brazil been, and what was he thinking with his Liquor Law amendment proposal? Who is supporting his cause? How much does he really care about the people of this fine city? I for one think that his days as an elected official in this city are now numbered. He too should go to the wayside with Barry, and Jarvis. Only then will this city begin to have some identity. Only then will the people have the ability to identify themselves as citizens of a world class city, that is respected and admired by many. We need to take matters in our own hands and rid ourselves of the people that are in fact holding us back and not producing any creativity and any positive direction for our city.

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Constitutional Reform
Michael Bindner, mbindnerdc@aol.com

One of our biggest obstacles to self-determination (through a grant of statehood) is the fact that we have two constitutions. The first, which was ratified by DC residents in a racially polarized vote, was considered by the power elite on the Hill to be too progressive due to its inclusion of a (self-enforcing) right to a job and several social policy articles (none of which is all that radical). In reaction to this, the Council passed an alternative constitution which has no legal standing because it has never been ratified, so it has no legal force (though our shadow delegation and delegate would like to think it does). It largely parrots the Home Fool Act, which stinks as a governance document. AT A MINIMUM, we just demand that the Council either put their proposed constitution to a vote (so it can be resoundingly defeated at the polls) or formally withdraw the amended constitution so that we not muddy up the waters by having two constitutions on the books.

The second constitution was put forth to guarantee to Congress that nothing radical would change upon the enactment of statehood. This is a worthy principle, except the Council had the application backwards. What the Council should do is propose the adoption of the 1982 Constitution as a replacement for the Home Fool Act. This could be done Article by Article to weed out those articles which are seen as too radical. Additionally, it could propose amending language to provide that when the Charter is amended, the proposed Constitution is also amended, and that all amendments, including those proposed by Congress, must be voted on by DC Citizens. One can imagine that a vote on the 1982 Constitution and a vote to amend Home Rule could be combined, so that the provisions of the 1982 and 1986 constitutions could be voted upon side by side (a 25 member House of Delegates v. a 40 member House of Delegates, etc.) to first amend the ratified Constitution and secondly to amend the Charter.

Will the Council do this? Not on its own accord. Currently the Council has sole local control over the proposing of amendments (which means it can overturn term limits by simple majority — and probably will). Without public pressure, it will not give this up. Neither will it vote to increase its size to either 25 (with 9 at large — which is weird) or 40. D.C. residents who are in favor of statehood and self-determination need to raise this issue early and often in the next council's term. Constitutions matter, which is why we have them. Failure to insist upon constitutional integrity is a clear signal that District residents really don't care about statehood.

An advantage of this approach is congressional review. Should Congress try to block the amendment of our Charter to establish the office of Governor, our lack of political equality suddenly becomes national news. If they succeed, progressive challengers in every Republican district have an issue to raise about the rights of Americans in our nation's capital. Voting about statehood is one thing (and is considered largely a political question). Voting against the rights of a people to organize their own government is something else entirely. This is a win-win situation for us and a lose-lose for Congress, which is the best reason to pursue it. So, District residents, how badly do you want statehood? Badly enough to raise these questions?

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More about Representation by Michael Bindner
George S. LaRoche, laroche@us.net

Mr. Bindner says “legal avenues to demand representation have been exhausted.” If Mr. Bindner is referring to Alexander v. Daley, the law suit which asked the court to order Congress to pass legislation resulting in representation, then Mr. Bindner is correct. But Alexander was previously consolidated with another law suit, Adams v. Clinton, which most certainly is not finished. Though Adams did not present a “demand” for “representation,” the legal issues in Adams could lead to a situation, after closure of the case, in which representation would follow as a matter of political choice. But Mr. Bindner also refers to “three options” for the District (I assume he means “five options,” since continuation of the present, colonial status is also an “option” — howsoever disgusting and alien to what we say we believe — and amendment of the Constitution could alter the whole situation for everyone). The “statehood” and “retrocession” “options” (with few exceptions) are clear and well worth discussion. There is no “option” for “representation as a federal enclave within Maryland,” however.

Mr. Bindner's suggestion that Congress may “declare that, for purposes of representation in the House and the Senate, the District is an enclave within Maryland,” raises several constitutional concerns. First, to be “represented” under the terms of the Constitution, one must be a citizen of a State. Congress, acting alone, cannot confer that status. Rather, the State in question must either confer it or take some action indicating that the State considers a person to be a resident of the State. Second, Congress may not, unilaterally, alter a State's boundaries. Third, the residents of the District are not chattel, to be fobbed off or sold to the most convenient taker. Rather, if they are to be residents of Maryland, they and the State of Maryland must concur in the transition. (I could list more problems, but you get the drift).

Albaugh v. Tawes, 233 F.Supp. 576 (D. Md.) (per curiam), aff'd [per curiam, without opinion], 379 U.S. 27, reh. denied, 379 U.S. 940 (1964), by the way, doesn't turn on the so-called “Organic Act of 1801.” The problems with Albaugh are not in its roots per se, but with the fact that it depends on a doctrine which, for one hundred fifty years, was the law of the land for all places over which Congress holds the power of exclusive legislation but which has changed thoroughly for all those places except for the District of Columbia. The ramifications of this history are at issue in Adams v. Clinton, by the way. In conclusion, nothing is to be gained by discussing chimera and ill-conceived suggestions ginned up to add something new to a debate the parameters of which have been fairly clear for decades. The District can remain a colony or it can be a State or it can be part of a State. We could also discuss amending the Constitution, of course, if you've got the stomach for it.

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Call to Arms
Alan Abrams, awabrams@starpower.net

Mr. Bindner asks (themail, December 31, 2000): So, District residents, how badly do you want representation? The answer is, “Not very badly.” Otherwise, why are we so content to sit back and let La Roche and Covington and Burling do the fighting for us, and shrug our shoulders when they are whipped by the same bunch that soon after stifled the voters of Florida?

Some fight with a slogan on a piece of metal screwed to their bumpers. The people who wrote that slogan, two and a quarter centuries ago, stood up and backed it up. They threw a shipload of tea into a harbor, and when that didn't work, they got even rowdier. Now we're working on a memorial on the mall for a man who stood up to billy clubs and dogs and fire hoses, and who filled the mall with people to make themselves heard, and those few of us who shelled out the 25 bucks sit a traffic light expressing ourselves on our license plates.

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As Usual, I Guess I Don’t Get It
David Pansegrouw, dpansegrouw@atpco.net

Comments on two subjects. Ms. Faul's reference to “in your dreams” as per those not being born in DC thinking that they are from here brings to my mind a few things. First, in the early 1970's I made several visits to a small town in New Hampshire where a friend of mine lived in a house that had been in his family for a few generations. The house itself dated from before 1776. My friend introduced me to a farmer friend of his who at the time was in his seventies and still actively worked his farm. The farmer was originally from Maine; he had moved to this New Hampshire town when he was about seven years old with his family. He farmed the same farm he grew up on. Despite seventy years of continual living on the same farm in the town, there were still people in the town who referred to him as being from Maine (maybe 150 miles away at most)!

Second, I grew up in California where my maternal side first came for the gold rush in about 1850. Somehow I was born in New York City during the only year my mother was out of the state before she was 50 years old. I noticed two things: to some people I wasn't “from” California despite living there from four months old and a family history there dating to 1850. Being the son of an immigrant father didn't help convince anybody that I was “from” there. I also noticed that in school there were always a bunch of kids who had moved to California from somewhere east, even if it was only as far east as Oklahoma. As I watched the beautiful apricot orchards, as well as other farms, of the Santa Clara Valley get bulldozed and transformed into the “Silicon Valley” I often wondered if all these people couldn't go back to where they came from. And not many people really believe I am from New York City despite what my birth certificate says.

Third, when I went to college in Vermont I lived on a farm where I saw a family history that was a common Vermont experience and helped to explain the population growth I witnessed in California. The farmer, on whose farm I lived, lived with his mother and wife. He was in his seventies, his mother her nineties. He had a few sons. One son left the farm on his twenty-first birthday for California, not even to return at his father's funeral (which I attended).

So where does that leave me? I have lived in DC for eleven years, inside the beltway for twenty. I do not think of myself as from here at all yet I have been introduced by others in far away places as being from here. Where I grew up in California I am a stranger. What I do know is that regionalism is a form of nationalism or tribalism and I do my best to avoid -isms because they are designed to be a schism.

Which brings me to my second subject — what remains of DC (the east of the Potomac part as opposed to the original square) is “from” Maryland, and I fail to understand why it can't return there. Mr. Bindner thinks statehood has more possibility with a Republican White House than a Democrat and also says the Republicans in Maryland wouldn't let DC into Maryland (somewhere I am missing something). When Schaffer was governor of Maryland he said he would support retrocession but at the time DC “leaders” ignored him. I say follow the money -- and a lot of the workers in DC live in Maryland (and I think most of us agree, take the money they earn here back home to Maryland with them). Also I'd rather be a big fish in a little pond (DC in Maryland) than a little fish in a big pond (DC as a state). I say this as a ten year resident of a small state — Vermont.

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Amoco Expansion -- Some Final Thoughts
Paul Michael Brown, Capitol Hill, pmb@his.com

Just back from vacation to read several responses to my blurb supporting expansion of the Amoco expansion on H Street, NE. Kevin Palmer, who began the thread, reiterated his core argument: “This project does not provide real benefits to the community. It offers none of the services I've heard identified as common wishes from residents — sit down restaurants, grocery stores, bagel shops, copying center, gym, daycare center, and so forth.” In this holiday season, Mr. Palmer apparently confuses Amoco with Santa Claus. The folks at Amoco have no obligation to “provide real benefits to the community” by creating the businesses on Mr. Palmer's wish list. Rather, their mission is to sell gasoline and convenience store products to motorists — many of whom reside outside the community. And the best way to do that is via a large footprint establishment that's easy to navigate in a car. Mr. Palmer also argues that the “take what you can get” attitude “is exactly why parts of H Street have gone nowhere.” I respectfully disagree. Since the 1968 riots, the H Street corridor has been beset by increasing crime and abandoned by the middle class folks who formerly patronized merchants there. These urban pathologies have resisted all public and private efforts to establish upscale businesses. (Anyone remember the Mega Foods grocery store? Very nice, but doomed to fail due to lack of patronage.) As I noted in my original missive, it could also be argued that the real reason things haven't improved is that some people continue to oppose any investment that falls short of their personal paradigm of “good development.”

Speaking of personal paradigms, Richard Layman argues Amoco should expand up rather than out by building a multistory “mixed use development” that might include office space. Mary Vogel concurs, waxing eloquent about a hypothetical “gateway building” that adds “an interesting mixture of shops,” as well as “abundant secure bicycle parking” and "passive solar." As I noted above, dreaming about some archetype of ideal development is fine, but we should not forget that Amoco is not in the urban renewal business. It's not a developer of office space, bicycle parking lots or passive solar systems. It sells gasoline and junk food to people traveling by car. It's unrealistic to expect Amoco to ignore its core business and its duty to its shareholders to build something that conforms to everyone's vision of the H Street ideal. Finally, Ronni Glaser concedes the expansion will be a “vast improvement,” but questions why we should support something that will benefit commuters from outside the District. I would remind everyone that District resident frequently decry our inability to collect a commuter tax. Why should we now oppose something that would collect gas tax and sales tax from folks who are just passing through?

By the way, I live at 9th and D SE, across the street from another Amoco station (which I hope they expand to include a convenience store). In my neighborhood, we have similar arguments about the future of 8th St. SE and I take a similar pro-development position. I am not related to John Patrick Brown.

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BP Amoco
Keith Jarrell, keithndc@bellatlantic.net

With regards to Mr. Brown's comments regarding Kevin Palmer's article and about the efforts of many of the rest of us who would prefer a higher quality establishment than a BP Station with an oversized canopy, too many pumps, and yet another cheap store to buy cigarettes and sodas: take a walk, Mr. Brown, look around, and realize that nothing good will become of BP Amoco's ideas. I've visited many of their stations that are similar to what they've proposed, and there is nothing great about any of them. Look at their record, they've been on the corner of 3rd and H, NE, for thirty years and just open your eyes to a station that has had little of no upkeep, little or no involvement in the neighborhood. They employ people to sit behind the glass and take people's money. All of a sudden, they want to be our neighbors now, why should you or any of us be so vulnerable?

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Fragmented in a Great Storm
Mark Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com

What do the former District citizens south of the Potomac and Texas citizens have in common? For one, Congress passed and President James K. Polk signed legislation making them citizens of states around the same time. Thanks to my parents' giving me a book by James G. Blaine, Republican, published in 1870, entitled Twenty Years of Congress, (two volumes), I've had some interesting reading. It has been interesting to compare the chronology of events related to the Civil War and Reconstruction (http://www.wfu.edu/~zulick/340/chronology1.html) with the shape of the District and the status of her citizens. Blaine says the 1787 Constitution creating the federal Union wouldn't have been achieved without the political compromise over slavery. In the early years, political leaders struggled to keep a balance between free and slave power in Congress as they approved the entry of new states, two-by-two, slave and free. By the 1840s, there were two key national boundary questions unresolved related to the Republic of Texas and Oregon Country.

In the 1830s, radical and progressive abolitionists formed a small political party, many from New England and members of the Society of Friends. Blaine said abolitionists were “a proscribed and persecuted class,” denounced by both political parties, libeled in the press, and attacked by “furious mobs.” In 1837, John Quincy Adams presented a petition to Congress from 150 Massachusetts citizens calling for the abolition of slavery in the District (http://www.wfu.edu/~zulick/340/gagrule1.html). In 1838, under House speaker Mr. James K. Polk, a gag rule was passed by Southern Democrats and Whigs in which ôevery petition, memorial, resolution, proposition, or paper, touching or relating in any way or to any extend whatever to slavery or to abolition thereof, shall on presentation, without further action thereon, be laid upon the table, without being debated, or referred.” In the Presidential contest of 1844, Polk (http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/bios/11ppolk.html) gained the support of northern Democrats and won the party nomination by campaigning on “Fifty-four forty or fight” slogan for the location of the disputed northern boundary in “Oregon Country” (jointly occupied by U.S. and Great Britain). His opponent in the Presidential race, Henry Clay, did not support immediate annexation of Texas, and lost. Once in office, however, Polk reneged on his Oregon promise and made an agreement with Great Britain to make the 49th parallel the boundary. (Blaine claims if U.S. hadn't rushed into the deal, British Columbia would today be part of U.S.) The compromise in Oregon Country was considered necessary so U.S. could enter into war with Mexico over Texas. In June 1845, Congress passed legislation admitting the Republic of Texas as 28th U.S. state (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/texmenu.htm),   which Polk signed in December (http://www.lsjunction.com/events/events.htm). Texas entered a slave state. On May 11, 1846, U.S. declared war on Mexico to settle boundary disputes. During the war, in September 1846, Polk signed a bill passed by the House and Senate to retrocede the Virginia portion of the District to that state. A referendum was held in Alexandria city (a Senate requirement) in which the citizens of that area approved the measure. Some citizens of Alexandria Country petitioned Congress against retrocession, to no avail. The current "shape" of the District is the outcome of rhetorical wars in Congress — disputes in the nation — which culminated in the “political revolution of 1860.” By 1846, D.C. had physically become the fault line of the Union. It appears that at the time, few made much of the fragmenting of the federal diamond.

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Interesting Short Reads on the Internet
Mark Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com

In search of an economic engine — Document from 1789 when important landowners of Alexandria and Georgetown appointed a committee to communicate with principal towns in the Eastern states about the benefits of the Potomack area for the permanent residence of Congress:
http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe17/rbpe179/
17901500/rbpe17901500page.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?rbpebib:5:./temp/~ammem_Z2Ei::&linkText=0

Petition to Congress from District citizens from Alexandria and Georgetown in opposition to slavery (date? Sometime before 1846):
http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe21/rbpe210/
21002300/rbpe21002300page.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?rbpebib:1:./temp/~ammem_tvd2::&linkText=0

D.C. Republican Party position on slavery 1854:
http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe20/rbpe201/
20103800/rbpe20103800page.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?rbpebib:45:./temp/~ammem_Z2Ei::&linkText=0

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CLASSIFIEDS -- EVENTS

Absurd Conformity
David Sobelsohn, sobelsohn@footlightsdc.org

Footlights — DC's only modern-drama discussion group — meets monthly to discuss plays from the modern theater. Participation is free. On Tuesday, January 16, we'll discuss “Rhinoceros” (1960), by Eugene Ionesco, “godfather of the theater of the absurd” (Los Angeles Times). After a rhinoceros suddenly appears in a small town, townsfolk start following the new fashion & turning into rhinos. “Brilliant” (Nation), “hilarious” (New Yorker) and “surprisingly moving” (New York Post), “Rhinoceros” is an “absurdist masterpiece” (Boston Globe). Our discussion takes place 7:30-9:30 p.m. (dinner at 6:30) at Cafe Midi Cuisine, 1635 Connecticut Ave., NW, just north of Dupont Circle. It will feature director Genevieve Brunet Smith, who was a personal friend of the playwright, and Georgetown University professor Aurelia Roman, author of works on the plays of Ionesco. To make reservations, E-mail painews@bellatlantic.net or call 638-0444. For general information about Footlights, visit http://www.footlightsdc.org.

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CLASSIFIEDS -- HELP WANTED

Part-time Bookkeeper/Bookkeeper Service Wanted
Jon Katz, jon@markskatz.com

Small Silver Spring law firm seeks qualified part-time bookkeeper or bookkeeping service. Ideal for experienced bookkeeper or for student pursuing accounting or financial studies. Requires use of QuickBooks and Excel. Some work can be done off-site. Near subway and plentiful parking. Please fax or send resume and cover letter addressing your interest and ability for the position to Jon Katz, Marks & Katz, LLC, 1400 Spring Street, Suite 410, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910; fax: 301-495-8815, http://www.markskatz.com.

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Parks Landscaping and Maintenance
Todd Mosley, tmosley123@aol.com

DC's Department of Parks and Recreation (DCPR) seeks to hire 26 young adults between the ages of 17 and 24 to be trained and then to perform landscaping tasks on DC's pocket parks on a full-time basis. This new landscaping and maintenance crew is known as YES (Youth Environmental Services). YES seeks to attract young adults who are committed to maintaining or establishing crime-free, independent lifestyles and who seek to take pride and responsibility in the beautification of public space. The lack of a high school diploma or GED will not affect employment possibilities.

YES members will be trained as Master Gardeners at the University of the District of Columbia's (UDC) Cooperative Extension Program. Upon completion of the training and certification exam, members will achieve lifelong Master Gardener Certification. The Master Gardener Certification curriculum has been expanded and tailored to DCPR's specifications by UDC and Community Resources of Washington, a local community-based organization committed to green jobs, green education, and green industries. The Master Gardener part-time training period (1/22/01 -- 3/22/01) will be paid at a rate of $6.10/hr. Full-time employment after 3/22/01 will be paid at a rate of $8.30/hr.

In order to develop leadership and award excellence, YES members will agree to a Code of Conduct on and off the job and in return will have access to special trips, events, training, and employment year round. Requirements: should be between the ages of 17 and 24 (older can apply), must be DC residents and able to work part time (Tu, W, Th) until 3/22/01 and full time after 3/22/01, a high school diploma or GED is not required (but acquiring a GED will be included in program training), must have a positive attitude and a commitment to positive personal development, must be referred by a local organization or a personal mentor. One letter of recommendation is required and must include contact information of referring organization or individual. Must submit personal contact information (name, address, date of birth, phone number, address, and how you found out about the job notice) and a paragraph stating why the applicant would like to be part of YES by E-mail or letter by 1/15/01. Address letter to Parks and Recreation Headquarters, 3149 16th Street, NW, 20010 (Front Desk, Attn. YES/Todd Mosley),

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CLASSIFIEDS -- RECOMMENDATIONS

Tree Recycling
Christina Samuels, casamuels@earthlink.net

Can someone tell this Adams Morgan apartment dweller where to recycle her Christmas tree?

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Music Instrument Repair — Flute
Annie McCormick, amccormick@itic.org

I am looking for a music shop or individual to overhaul my flute. This instrument is extremely important to me and I would like a reputable and reliable person/people to do this. Anyone have a great experience with a music shop or individual they could recommend? Inside or outside the District.

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CLASSIFIEDS — CITY PAPER PREVIEW
Dave Nuttycombe, webmeister@washcp.com

PLAYING THE ANGLES: Some people were baffled when Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember Kevin Chavous and two of his colleagues held a forum in middle-class Ward 4 last month to discuss the future of D.C. General Hospital, because residents in that voter-rich part of Northwest rarely use the public hospital located across town in Southeast. But more than a few Northwest residents are employed there and stand to lose their jobs as a result of changes being forced by Mayor Anthony A. Williams, the control board, and Congress. And Chavous is counting on the fact that voters won't forget he came to their aid.
The town hall meeting served as the most recent and obvious salvo in the upcoming mayoral campaign. No doubt the D.C. General rescue attempt will play prominently in the platform of “Mayor-in-Wanting” Chavous as he meets “Reformer Redux” Williams. Expect the two men to pit political aspiration for political aspiration, accelerating their dizzying gamesmanship to the point of nausea.
Read the entire Loose Lips column here: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/lips/lips.html

From washingtoncitypaper.com's CITY LIGHTS page, here are a few early warnings for upcoming events:
SUNDAY: Hugo Elfinstone's New Year's Resolution Workshop. Hugo will use hypnotherapy to encourage people “to create the life you want this year and quit unfulfilling habits like smoking, overeating, and cynicism.” 4 p.m. at the Arlington Center for Well Being, 3800 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 5, Arlington. Free
TUESDAY: Jimmy Carter signs his book An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of My Rural Boyhood, at 12:35 p.m. at Olsson's Books & Records, 1200 F St. NW. Free.
More details and more critics' picks are available online at http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/pix/pix.html

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