Mock Elections
Dear Mockers:
Shamefully, I'm entering the fray about DC's so-called primary
election, rather than staying above it, so I'm demoting myself to the
bottom of the issue.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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The GAO Report on Structural Imbalance
Henry Townsend, henry.townsend@verizon.net
I read this report and found it surprisingly unbalanced; hitherto I
believed that the Government Accounting Office was able to do more or
less fair, bipartisan analytical work. Aside from the basic
implausibility of claiming that DC should spend nearly five times the
national per capital average on police services, the report makes no
mention of the free or nearly free ride the District gets from various
Federal services. How much do comparable cities spend on parks, museums,
or a zoo? Not mentioned. The Federal tax credit for residents going to
other states' colleges and universities? Not mentioned.
Compare our tourist business with that of nearby, comparable cities,
Baltimore and Richmond. Is the Federal government presence really a
financial burden?
[The GAO report is posted at http://www.gao.gov/atext/d03666.txt;
testimony about the report at a Congressional hearing is at http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/budget.
— Gary Imhoff]
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Millions for Darrell Green’s Kids
Jim Myers, Hilleast@aol.com
Almost everyone has heard about the work former Redskins star Darrell
Green does with kids in the District. He's also won praise from the
White House and top Republicans in Congress, too, plus awards and
honorary degrees. It's even been suggested that Green, a devout
Christian, has found the way to rescue disadvantaged kids from the
troubled corners of cities like ours. The Darrell Green Youth Life
Foundation, with a $1.3 million annual budget, has also garnered $3
million in congressionally earmarked grants over the past three years,
along with private donations. But what's happened with the money? Since
1993, the foundation has run an after-school and summer leaning center
for 38 kids at Franklin Commons near Catholic University in Northeast,
and expansion in DC was a centerpiece of the federal grant proposal. But
a second learning center still does not exist almost two years after the
foundation said it would open in Southeast, and the foundation's plans
for a chain of independent affiliates in six other cities have produced
only two, serving an additional 36 children. Lord knows that many of our
kids need help. But in some views, the number of children served by the
Green organization is very small next to the amount of money spent -
particularly at a time when other after-school and youth programs in DC
and elsewhere are facing cuts. But the Green story - and its political
and religious entanglements - are even more complicated, as I try to
describe in the July/August Youth Today (http://www.youthtoday.org/youthtoday/specialstory.html).
I'd be glad to hear how others in Washington react to the situation.
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Simply Assaulted by MPD?
Karen Szulgit, kaszulgit@ilsr.org
I sent the following letter to Metropolitan Police Department Chief
Charles Ramsey (names of the victims have been omitted): On Monday, June
16, 2003, my friend called to tell me the bad news that her niece and
two of her friends were assaulted in the 1000 block of F Street, NW,
earlier that morning. In addition, the alleged perpetrator -- a young,
African-American male -- although briefly in the custody of the
Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), was neither detained nor arrested
in conjunction with this case. How do you expect to solve criminal cases
when your officers do not hold assailants in custody so that a proper
questioning can be conducted; thus, increasing the possibility of a
prosecution? Talk about justice denied!
Even worse, it is my understanding that the MPD officers — Officer
Goins (Badge #1234), Officer L. Harvell (Badge #2551), and Officer “J.R.”
(Badge #5302) — that arrived on the scene were not very helpful to the
complainants, who had each just been punched in the face at least once.
In fact, my friend's niece had received several blows to the face and
sustained a broken nose, a split lip, and many bruises. If this is the
case, I am perplexed why one of the officers would yell at the women to
"Shut the f*ck up!" Is this MPD’s standard procedure for
addressing victims in the District of Columbia?
Personally, I feel much sympathy for the three women — not only
because they were victims of an assault, but also because they have been
treated so poorly by MPD Officers and various staff members. Therefore,
I implore you to investigate this case internally and examine the
performance of your officers immediately. The actions — or lack
thereof — and the demeanor of the MPD are a great cause of concern for
me. As a female resident of the District, I believe that just such an
incident — including the unfair treatment by MPD — could happen to
me, as well.
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Cab Fares and Extra Dollar
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com
On July 2, I used cabs for three trips, and not one driver knew if he
was to charge the $1.00 that had been in place until July 1! They all
said they had not been notified. Moreover, one of the drivers had the
original note issued to them along with the stickers for the windows,
which had entirely different dates; and he thought the extra fare was
charged until July 22, which is what the note said. I didn't pay it, and
on July 3, one driver knew but the others still didn't. AARGH!
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The Spin Gets Dizzier
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
As if it weren't enough claiming that some fraudulent credit card use
may have been justified because government officials needed Bally bags
for their notebook computers, Tony Bullock, Mayor Williams's press
secretary, came up with another gold-plated justification last week. As
reported in The Common Denominator: “During a telephone
conversation last week with Common Denominator reporter Erik Henk,
mayoral spokesman Tony Bullock raised a previously unvoiced reason that
Police Chief Charles Ramsey needs a $25,000 increase in his $150,000
annual salary. Bullock said the chief, like other parents, needs to
combat the rising cost of private school tuition.” (http://www.thecommondenominator.com/063003_taking.html)
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How Lame Is the Post?
John Whiteside, johnwhiteside at earthlink dot net
Okay, it's no surprise by now that our supposed leading daily ought
to be called the Montgomery County Post. I think it's particularly sad
that the first editorial commenting on Tom Davis' proposal to give us a
voting member of Congress showed up in the New York Times, not
the Post. When a local issue becomes interesting enough for
national coverage (such as the sniper story) the Times usually
covers it much better than the Post. Maybe, given the recent
trouble at the Times, they'd like to have a fresh start by moving
to Washington, becoming the daily paper we always wished we'd had. Plus,
they don't seem to have adopted talking up the Mayor as a pet project!
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Only a Little Help
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com
If President Bush really wants to help DC Students to be among the
best in the country, then he'll have to do more than give the city $15
megabucks for vouchers to allow more students to use private schools.
Yes, the public schools have failed. But without a complete change in
the system and its processes, the public schools will only change at the
speed of a glacier. President Bush should establish, with grants from
the Department of Education, a blue ribbon team, fully funded, to
develop a model for urban schools and then to implement a pilot program
in selected DC schools. The pilot program would fully fund the schools
using the model school processes developed by the blue ribbon team.
Who would make up this team? It should be staffed with top level
proven education administrators, captains of industry, and proven
teachers, and principals. Parents who have demonstrated commitment to
good education in the DC schools should also participate. It'll take a
heckuva lot more than a band aid of $15 megabucks to make the DC
students the best in the country. Just think how much better it would be
for the feds to fund a program that would make DC public schools the
model for urban school systems around the country. That's the kind of
help DC really needs.
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Congressional Representation and Tom Davis
John Whiteside, johnwhiteside at earthlink dot net
What do people think of the Davis proposal on a vote for our delegate
(the proposal which we haven't seen but have heard bits and pieces
about). A couple of thoughts from yours truly.
One: Balancing it out with an additional Republican seat violates the
whole concept of proportional representation. Two: I've heard murmurs
that part of it would be combining our electoral vote with the Maryland
batch. This is ridiculous; we're not Maryland. If we want to become part
of Maryland, let's do it, but we're not, and this seems like an obvious
attempt to take a near-guaranteed Democratic electoral vote and put it
where it might wind up in the Republican column. Finally: the whole
thing is disingenuous. If you want to right the wrong, give us our
Representative and two Senators. If you want to address something far
more important, deal with budget and governmental autonomy. Mr. Davis is
playing a political game that gives us a small benefit but ultimately
does little good.
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Here Thursday, Gone Saturday
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom
And in broad daylight, too. Someone has absconded with the bus
shelter right outside the Crate and Barrel on 48th and Massachusetts
Avenue, NW. The new shelter was a poor substitute for the old shelter
having a bench that sat only two normal folks and listed to starboard at
about ten degrees. It did, however, provide some respite from the rain
this spring. Hard to figure out who removed it, and why. No one hoping
to outfit their back yard with a gazebo would likely make off with it.
Perhaps it won't rain before something comes to replace it.
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Just to clear up some misunderstandings about the ownership of the
DirecTV dishes and the rules about where a dish can be placed, DirecTV
doesn’t own the dish. The dish and receiver used to receive the signal
are the property of the homeowner or the renter of house. Calling
DirecTV and the installers will have no effect. It’s up to the
homeowner to tell the installer where to place the dish.
While I agree that placing the dish on the side of the house is very
undesirable, the homeowner has the right to place the dish basically
where he or she sees fit. The FCC has rules prohibiting restrictions on
where the dish can be placed on the house. These rules supersede
whatever laws the DC Government has on the placement of an antenna. You
can find the FCC Fact Sheet on Placement of Antennas at http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html;
it has links to the relevant FCC orders and rule.
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More on Community Conferencing
Darrell Duane, dduane@duane.com
Thanks so much for writing about Community Conferencing [Ingrid
Drake, ingridnatasha@yahoo.com, July 2]. I know this style of justice by
the name Restorative Justice. I would say that both Community Policing
with a judicial system based on Restorative Justice are important. I
don't want individuals from our neighborhoods who are caught tagging, or
otherwise creating minor havoc in our neighborhoods committed to jail
sentences. I'd like to know who they are, I'd like them to know who I
am, and I'd like to be able to be in community with them.
We need Community Policing to better catch and know the offenders in
our neighborhood, and we need Restorative Justice / Community
Conferencing to restore the sense of community that was destroyed when
the offense happened. More details about Restorative Justice are
available at http://www.realjustice.org.
I am not aware of any of this happening in DC, and its not clear about
what the first steps are that I could take to bring Restorative Justice
to DC. Can anyone provide suggestions?
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AOL Time Warner Foundation’s Involvement in
DC
Gabe Goldberg gabe@gabegold.com
Phil Shapiro wrote (themail, July 2): “I give [AOL] credit for
having an active philanthropy program in place. Same for Verizon;
however much anyone complains about their service, it's good to know
that Verizon is very seriously committed (to the tune of several hundred
thousand dollars) to increase literacy in the DC.”
Every month my Verizon phone bill solicits me to donate a dollar a
month to support literacy. While Verizon promises to pass all the money
forward to the deserving causes, there's no mention of Verizon's
contributing. And since Verizon just wrote off $3 billion for how they
account for their directory revenues, several hundred thousand dollars
is chump change to them. I'm happy that they have the program to channel
money from their customers to support literacy, but I'm not sure that
this level of fundraising and cheerleading makes them “seriously
committed.”
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Noise Pollution from Ambulances in DC
Darrell Duane, dduane@duane.com
Following up on Bill Adler's comments about noise pollution in DC
from the trash trucks [Bill Adler, billonline@adlerbooks.com,
July 2], I'm aware that there is a policy in DC which creates much
unneeded noise from ambulances. The policy of the DC Fire and Emergency
Medical Services (FEMS) is that all patients transported to the hospital
by ambulance shall be taken utilizing lights and sirens.
This policy is different from all of the surrounding jurisdictions,
including Fairfax, Prince Georges, Arlington, and Montgomery counties.
They only transport using lights and sirens when the patient is
determined to have a significant injury or illness. However, there are
many patients who call 911 and are transported by ambulance who do not
have an injury or illness where the outcome would be any different if
they arrived at the hospital 5-15 minutes earlier because they were
transported with lights and sirens. Traveling with lights and sirens is
riskier, often more uncomfortable to the patient who is strapped down on
the stretcher facing backwards, and causes much unneeded noise pollution
in the city. It is my guess that the DC FEMS has this policy in place to
make up for the severe shortage of ambulances and EMTs/Paramedics this
city has, as was described in a Washington Post article a few
months ago. It is very frustrating that the DC FEMS can't provide an
appropriate level of service to the citizens and that it must use sirens
so often.
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DC Primary Counts
Sean Tenner, DC Democracy Fund, stenner@mrss.com
I will try to be brief in addressing the errors in themail's most
recent diatribe against DC's primary. First the most glaring offense:
the January 13 DC presidential primary will be meaningful in terms of
delegate allocation. Widely respected national publications including Roll
Call and National Journal have reported this fact. The votes
of DC Democrats on primary day will impact the nominating process. DC
has 28 super delegates to the Democratic National Convention, and some
of these, including our entire Shadow Congressional Delegation, have
pledged to base their delegate vote at the convention on the results of
the primary. If you say that DC's primary will not count in terms of
delegate allocation, you are, in essence, calling my friends Paul
Strauss, Florence Pendleton, and Ray Browne liars.
The fact that Eleanor Holmes Norton and Mayor Williams have not done
so yet is no reason to assume that others will not follow. We only began
the effort to secure pledges from super delegates to support the primary
winner in the past few weeks. Hopefully readers will understand that we
voting rights/statehood volunteers have spent the last six months
pushing this primary against insurmountable odds through the DC Council,
the DNC, the DC Democratic State Committee, the United States Congress,
all against the backdrop of local and national pundits telling us
“this won't happen.” Now that DC's primary is officially first in
the nation (See the most recent Roll Call Headline: “DC Primary is
officially first in the nation”), I hope readers will allow some grace
time on the super delegate front.
Finally, I ask anyone who doubts the utility of the primary to visit www.DCDemocracyFund.org
and download the over one hundred pages of news stories about the DC
primary/voting rights struggle from around the nation. This effort has
succeeded in generating more attention to our plight than any tactic in
history. Recently, Ward 8 Democrats were wood by Howard Dean and John
Kerry campaign officials, who pledged support for DC statehood and
voting rights at a recent meeting. Does anyone really think the leading
presidential campaigns would be out in DC neighborhoods seven months
before the election if we weren't voting first? The DC primary is
working, and things are just getting started.
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You Miss the Point
Malcolm L Wiseman, Jr., wiseman@us.net
Regarding your railing of DC Primary First, you miss the point. The
Primary First organizers are freedom fighters, and their objective in
this campaign is to generate national exposure and debate. And it's
working. It seems politicians and press will come to any "beauty
contest" where the presidency is the prize. Whether for statehood,
voting rights, or retrocession, you have to love what PF is already
doing. In the eyes of the freedom fighter, the voting power and the
attention of politicians that you say we are sacrificing, so far hasn't
shown so brightly. To move the issues forward effectively, other
unconventional strategies are necessary. All of us in DC democracy don't
agree on some things, but hardly any of us goes around harping on how
screwed up the other groups' tactics, and especially their successes,
are.
The success of PF won't be measured by which candidate wins, how many
candidates participate, or even how high the spike in local revenues
flowing from the events. The gauge is how many more people in the nation
are talking about DC democracy today and next year then were doing so
three months ago. Perhaps the difference will be in the millions. I'll
give up my precious DC vote for president for awhile for that.
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Rather than a drubbing, I think Gary Imhoff should receive bemused
applause for so spectacularly missing the point of the
first-in-the-nation DC Primary. The editor’s opposition to “wasting
your time” in a non-binding primary would be completely valid if it
were the intention of the DC Council and primary advocates to increase
the influence of DC delegates at the Democratic Convention. It is not.
The reduction in influence was a price that had to be paid in an effort
to raise national awareness of our disenfranchisement and other
important DC issues. In all civil rights struggles, the disenfranchised
often choose to give up certain rights and comforts in an effort to
advance the cause..
This was a one-off decision affecting one primary only, and hardly
constitutes a serious reduction in DC voters' influence (a phrase that
is laughable considering how little there is to reduce). The primary
change is already bearing fruit in the form of significant press
coverage and grass roots energy. Only time will tell whether this
national attention to DC will ultimately be worth the price of lost
influence at the convention. If this tremendous effort ultimately comes
up with little to show for it, then I will still cheer the organizers
for a good effort. If other advocates have a better idea for advancing
DC rights, then I hope they will stop wasting their time criticizing or
obstructing others and get on with some actions. I will applaud their
effort too.
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DC Primary
Michael Bindner, mikeybdc at yahoo
It is true that the DC primary is not binding. Neither are the Iowa
Caucuses. As a former Iowa voter, let me assure you that the winners of
the Iowa Caucuses and the Iowa state convention are almost always
different people. Yet candidates still go to Iowa, just as they are
coming to DC. Of course, if there is no clear winner on the first ballot
of the convention, all votes are free votes on the second ballot
(delegates are only committed for that first vote).
Let me also add a technical correction to another writer's comments:
Nixon was never governor of California.
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Foregoing Binding
Timothy Cooper, Democracy First, worldright@aol.com
Gary Imhoff launched his opposition to the DC presidential primary
last January by famously predicting that Congress would veto the DC
Council's First-in-the-Nation presidential primary legislation and that
DC's 38 delegates to the Democratic National Convention would be
stripped of their vote by the Democratic National Party. Both prophecies
proved to be false. His latest contention is that the January 13th
primary precludes elected officials from voting at the national
convention in any meaningful way. However, perhaps Mr. Imhoff should
direct his ire at Donna Brazil and the Democratic State Committee for
their key roles in undermining the effort to make the DC primary a
binding primary before castigating a laudably activist DC Council,
Mayor, and the promoters of this novel idea.
The effectiveness of holding the first-in-the-nation primary to
expose in the press and on the national political stage the heretofore
almost hidden injustice that DC residents daily bear far outweighs any
loss of binding votes to the convention. Moreover, so-called super
delegates will be free to vote for the nominee of their choice according
to the results of the primary. As elected leaders of this city, we
expect them to do so. However, DC's delegate contribution to electing
the party's presidential nominee accounts for only about 1.7 percent of
the 2170 delegates required to put the nominee over the top. Foregoing,
to whatever extent is necessary, binding delegate votes at the
convention in order to shake the blanket of national difference spread
over DC's disenfranchisement for two centuries is well worth the price.
[Thanks to Tim for pointing out that I was right months ago when I
predicted that DC wouldn't get a first-in-the-nation primary election.
But I do object to calling the January 13 opinion poll, which we have
substituted for our lost primary election, a primary. — Gary Imhoff]
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Oppression Always Calls for Creativity and
Guts
Anise Jenkins, anisej@nifcomm.com
As a member of Stand Up! for Democracy in DC Coalition (which
endorsed the DC First Freedom Primary) I would like to respectfully
remind you that we are now approaching the fortieth anniversary of the
1963 March on Washington. I am just old enough to remember that many DC
residents did not go to that historic march out of fear. My mother would
not take me down to the mall because of the widespread fear of potential
rioting. Many others did not attend because they thought it would not
accomplish much (it resulted in the 1964 Civil Rights Act). It is a
standing joke that if all the people who now claim they were there to
hear Dr. King speak were actually present, 1963 would have seen the
first million man march. We are also approaching the fiftieth
anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, and not far the fortieth
anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Party's daring challenge to the
then Klannish Southern wing of the Democratic Party. All of these
tactics were surely at the time considered futile, inappropriate, and
even desperate. And although the DC First Freedom Primary certainly does
not compare to these historic acts and the times are not so overtly
dangerous; we living in DC are living under oppression, and the
oppressed and disempowered have little to rely on at times but
creativity and guts!
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DC’s Presidential Primary
David Sobelsohn, dsobelso-at-capaccess-dot-com
I imagine I'm not the only one who wonders to whom Chuck Thies refers
in his response to Tom Sherwood's argument that Democratic presidential
candidates could invite attacks by winning next year's DC presidential
primary. Thies writes: “Based on Sherwood's theory, national
candidates would have stopped campaigning in California post-1974, when
that state's former Governor suffered the ultimate political humiliation
and resigned the Presidency.” What “former Governor” was that,
Chuck?
I argued months ago that scheduling DC for the first presidential
primary would muddy the message that we have no meaningful right to
vote. But it's done. The time to argue about it has passed. Let's see
what happens next year. If it backfires, or anyway doesn't help
highlight our colony status, we can change the date.
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DC's January 13, 2004, Presidential Primary is by no means the
perfect solution to our voting rights dilemma. However, what has been
accomplished is noteworthy and the potential for greater achievement is
promising. First the accomplishments: presidential candidates, political
parties, and media are paying attention to the disenfranchisement of DC.
Also, new life has been breathed into local voting rights activism, and
indeed, new faces are participating. This, and it's six months before
election day.
Next, greater achievements down the road: when the DC Democratic
State Committee first considered whether or not to sanction the Primary,
DNC officials attended that meeting and sought to broker a compromise.
In doing so, they offered DC a seat at the table and genuine
consideration, in as much as our 2008 first-in-the-nation Primary is
concerned (that would be a “binding” primary and should satisfy
themail's chief scribe). Also, during that meeting prominent DNC
official Donna Brazile promised to advocate for DC's efforts to hold
indefinitely the nation's first primary until voting rights are secured.
In addition, DC is now part of a growing political dialogue (mostly
among Democrats) about guaranteed voting rights for all Americans. And
finally, if the winner of DC's Primary eventually occupies the White
House (not out of the question), we will be remembered fondly as part of
that victory, and will have secured a champion in the highest office of
the land. Nothing in life is assured, and all of the above could come
tumbling down. A lot depends on individuals keeping their word; even
more depends on the continued support of local activists, elected
officials, and citizens. Rain on this parade that comes in the form of
jaded commentary serves no purpose. If the result is to dissuade one
voter, one activist, or one elected official from participating in this
gambit, then an absurd injustice has been perpetrated.
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Meaningful Chance to Seize
Sam Farmer, sam@letsfreedc.org
DC's last Presidential primary was in May 2000, and was won in a
landslide by Al Gore, who picked up ten delegates. The next Presidential
primary will be in January 2004. Up to twenty-eight super-delegates will
be up for grabs. DC voters will have (as of today) nine candidates to
choose from; the attention of the nation will be on DC, and we will
highlight our disenfranchisement to the nation.
There has been more attention on our disenfranchisement in the last
six months than in the previous ten years. There will be much more in
the next six months. This is a unique time and one that the residents of
DC should seize. If everyone on this list spent one hour a month over
the next six months participating in E-mail campaigns, get-out-the-vote
campaigns, and calling Presidential candidates we would be a significant
step closer to becoming equal American citizens. Visit http://dcfirst.org
and sign up for our mailing list to be made aware of when the above
campaigns start. I also invite you to read the First Primary Blog
written by four local citizens — some insiders, some outsiders: http://blog.letsfreedc.org.
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Primary Purpose
Mark David Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
The primary purpose of the January 13 first-in-the-national DC
Presidential primary is to increase the amount of discussion about DC's
need for equal Congressional voting rights and full local
self-government. The current effort was achieved with unity of purpose
and bipartisan support and with lightening speed, because it is a good
idea. The cost is negligible. The move to a DC first primary is likely a
very good investment for future generations. To hold a primary in May is
useless, but to hold a primary in January could encourage DC champions
and leadership as they think through the issues early. Kennedy. Johnson.
DC needs contemporary champions, so let's go find them. The Democratic
Party in DC is organizing and activating, a very good sign. This is
going to work. I'm more interested in focusing on the candidates at this
point. I would like to see a new “Primary Watch” in the Metro
section of the Washington Post to help DC get more informed.
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As I've told others, I'll be happy to be wrong about what I think
will be the effect of the DC Primary — a tool to bash whomever wins
it. But virtually every presidential campaign in modern times has had a
principal candidate running “against” Washington — or at least the
image of official Washington. The lone exception is Walter Mondale in
1984, and we know what happened to his promise to raise your taxes. I've
tried to point out that I don't think it's fair, honorable, or American
that local District citizens are denied basic American rights that
President Bush wants to export to Iraq and other places. But Washington
is not the same as a bankrupt California, the historically corrupt
Louisiana, or the lank of murky ethics like Maryland. Many states have
sordid politics, but Washington is unique.
Two quick stories. When Harry Jaffe and I were writing our 1994 book
about Washington, I prefaced it with an incident in Florida while my
young son and I were attending a Boston Red Sox game. A guy from Boston
sitting next to me, upon discovering we were from DC, said derisively,
“You must work for the federal government or be on welfare.” More
recently, a couple from Kentucky was visiting the Mall with their two
young children. For TV, I sought to interview the couple about the
District's effort to gain voting rights in Congress. The man looked
perplexed and stammered, “But you work for us!” The point was that
he thought District residents are here only to work for the government.
It would be the same to him if the Agriculture Department sought voting
rights.
These examples don't make my case but illustrate the point I'm trying
to make. The District's reputation — even discounting Marion Barry —
is that of a bureaucracy bog of federal government and waste. People
love the monuments, but don't attach their importance to either the
federal government or local District citizens. I hope the District
primary turns out as an excellent way of showcasing ordinary Americans
who just want to be part of their country. Again, I hope I'm wrong about
the image of the city being more of a weight than a sail for some
candidate. I eagerly await the results.
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I'm being taught lessons in democracy, and my shameful ignorance is
being exposed. Let me see if I get what I am being taught straight.
Meaningful elections are so important that it's a small sacrifice to
give up meaningful elections. A mock election with no more legal effect
than a Gallup poll is as good as a binding election. The hope that the
party apparatchiks and responsible officials will follow the will of the
people at the party convention is as good as electing representatives
who are legally bound to follow the voters' will. Getting publicity and
press clippings is the all-important goal; it is more important than
having the voters' votes actually count. It is impressive and
unprecedented for politicians in a political race to pander to a
politically active faction and pretend to care about its cause.
Disagreement harms democratic goals and it should be suppressed, because
expressing disagreement may confuse those who would otherwise
participate in an opinion poll thinking that they were actually voting.
All right-thinking citizens must unite behind a common goal and
sacrifice their pitiful clinging to outmoded forms like binding
primaries. “Power to the people” is merely the old-fashioned motto
of a bypassed generation; the really important aim of a democracy is
powerful politicians.
I've been challenged to come up with other ways to advance the cause.
Well, if giving up our vote in party primaries doesn't succeed, we could
give up our votes for councilmembers. We could amend the Home Rule
Charter to have the mayor appoint all the members of the City Council.
That should get lots of publicity, and publicity is the main thing. If
that doesn't work, we could amend the Home Rule Charter again, abolish
the positions of the mayor and councilmembers, and have the president
appoint a three-member commission to govern the District. That should
show that we're really serious about democracy, and that we take our
right to vote seriously. The press clippings will impress everyone.
Look, you folks haven't seen a radical until you've got me started.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Mortgage Party for Michele and Rick
Tingling-Clemmons, July 11
Madeleine Fletcher, madeleinefletcher@yahoo.com
Friends of Michele and Rick Tingling-Clemmons are organizing a
mortgage party for them at their home. The evening will feature music,
food, and politics. People are asked to bring a dish, beverage, ice,
ideas, donation and/or job leads. Friday, July 11, 6 p.m., 4614 Central
Avenue, NE (one block from Benning Road Metro). The house is located
near the intersection of East Capitol and Benning Road. A prominent
landmark is the Shrimp Boat. Central Avenue is the street between the
Shrimp Boat and Benning Road Metro. For more information or directions,
please call Michele or Rick at or E-mail them at Mirico5@aol.com.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
I need one or two people who will go with me to Home Depot to buy my
indoor/outdoor carpeting, haul it down to an apartment in DC, and lay it
down for me. Any leads will be appreciated!
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — HOUSING
Seeking apartment/room to share, September 2nd through December 2003,
for internship in Arlington area. Metro accessible. Contact missjwhite@aol.com.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — POSITION WANTED
Available to start immediately. Active and cultural-minded
English-speaking nanny available immediately for summer, possibly
longer. Fluent French and Flemish. Live-in possible. Prefer Washington,
DC, metro area and Metro accessible. References available. E-mail micheleblg@aol.com.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — VOLUNTEERS
Call for Volunteers and Board Members
Dana Mozie, Jr., Tale of the Tape, danamozie@aol.com
We are all aware of the toll youth homicide can take on our
community. Tale of the Tape, as featured on NBC-4 News, NPR's Morning
Edition, and in the Washington Post Magazine, documents the life and
death of over 80 DC youths since 1989. With the help of city service
agencies and law enforcement agencies, a Tale of the Tape
lessons-learned project is being organized to tackle youth problems head
on. All DC at-risk teenagers will have the opportunity to participate,
and we expect thousands. These young men and women will be given
intensive mentoring, behavior training, and conflict resolution skills,
all designed to make them productive citizens.
We need your help. We are inviting you to join our Executive Board of
Directors or become a volunteer. The board consists of professionals
such as yourself. In your advisory capacity, your comments will carry
great weight when we seek it. Will you join us? Please forward a resume
to danamozie@hotmail.com. We
must undertake this soon. Please join us. Tale of the Tape Foundation
and the teenagers who live in DC needs you.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
The only reason I would not recommend Great Scott Movers to Nick
Keenan is simply because we don't want him moving out of our
neighborhood! Whoever gets him gets a great community minded activist
indeed. With that said, go with Great Scott! They moved me two years ago
from a storage facility and packed everything from fragile neon to
oversized wardrobes across town and up three flights of stairs with a
team of men. And then unpacked everything! All in record time and at a
very reasonable price.
###############
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