Broken Promise
Dear Promise Keepers:
Martin Austermuhle, below, taunts me enough about statehood to make
me break my promise not to publish another message about statehood until
and unless something happens. So I’ve published his message and my
reply below. Now, really, this is it. Write about something else,
please. Something you’re interested in, something about your
neighborhood, something that I haven’t covered in themail before.
Start your own conversation.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Council Bill to Add Slogan to Flag
Kathryn Pearson-West, wkpw3@aol.com
[Re: http://dcist.com/2011/05/mendelson_introduces_bill_to_put_ta.php,
“Council Introduces Bill To Put ‘No Taxation Without Representation’
On DC Flag”] Do we really want to turn our DC flag into a billboard? A
flag should be a source of pride, not an advertisement or source of
sloganeering or a show of victimology or something short of a neon
light. Besides, the proposed flag looks ugly and too busy. Anyway, as
someone said years ago, the slogan should be “taxation demands
representation.”
Furthermore, if a poll were taken today, the leadership would find
that not everyone in the city is excited about statehood, though most
support a vote in Congress. Our proud flag should not be dishonored with
what seems like graffiti on a memorial. Would you put text on the flag
at the Iwo Jima statue? Bottom line — it’s just tacky! Find another
way to make a point about the citizens’ lack of representation in
Congress.
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So I’m right. Norton needs to go, and we need someone else. Until
then we won’t get statehood! Let’s get her out!
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In your two opinions on how to best gain statehood [themail, April 13
and 20], you’ve implied that the District simply has to be less
radical to achieve equality. On April 20, you laid out your case about
how the District is on the fringe of US politics by citing a number of
initiatives and pieces of legislation that you seem to think are
radical, including medical marijuana, needle exchange programs, and
same-sex marriage. Interesting choices, especially seeing as none of
them is particularly radical anymore, nor would they put us on the
fringe of US politics.
Let’s consider medical marijuana. Currently, seventeen states
including the District allow the use of marijuana for medicinal
purposes. Amongst those states are Arizona and Colorado, which I don’t
think anyone would paint as being particularly extremist. The District’s
medical marijuana initiative was overwhelmingly approved by the city’s
voters in 1998. Not one voting precinct in the whole city voted against
the idea, and it was only set aside because right-wing Republicans
disagreed with the idea. Interestingly, one of those Republicans,
Georgia’s Bob Barr, reversed positions in 2007 and is now an advocate
for the decriminalization of marijuana. The city’s program is
extremely limited in scope and restrictive as to who can qualify; there’s
simply nothing extremist in how Mayor Adrian Fenty and now Mayor Vince
Gray have crafted the strict regulatory scheme that will govern the
program.
How about needle exchange programs? Also not particularly extreme. In
February, the US Surgeon-General released a statement vouching for
programs as vital in lowering drug abuse and preventing the spread of
diseases like HIV/AIDS. determined that a demonstration needle exchange
program (or more appropriately called syringe services program or SSP)
would be effective in reducing drug abuse and the risk of infection with
the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. “The
Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, VADM Regina
Benjamin, MD, MBA, has determined that a demonstration needle exchange
program (or more appropriately called syringe services program or SSP)
would be effective in reducing drug abuse and the risk of infection with
the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome,” read the
statement. Given that roughly 20 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases in the
District are contracted from dirty needles, providing clean needles to
at-risk populations is an absolutely vital — not extreme — public
health tool. And same-sex marriage? Again, not really very extreme
anymore. Polling consistently shows that younger generations are
supportive of same-sex marriage. Moreover, in the year that the District
has allowed same-sex marriages, nothing truly extreme has happened to
the traditional conception of marriage. (I recently married, and I can
safely say that my heterosexual union was completely unaffected by any
same-sex marriages.)
As you can see, the District might lean left in its politics, but it’s
not really on the fringe of US politics as you imply. I think you’ve
simply mistaken what you disagree with and what’s truly on the fringe
or what might be seen as extremist. Every fight for civil rights and
equality requires multiple strategies. Simply being nice, hanging
American flags on all of our porches and repealing any and all District
laws that could seem vaguely extremist or offensive will do no more for
the cause of DC voting rights, self-determination, and statehood than
getting our elected officials arrested on a weekly basis and badmouthing
Congress. Could we have a bigger presence on the Hill, dedicated to
lobbying? Sure. Could we be nicer about it now and then? Of course. But
approaching Congress with our tails between our legs asking for
forgiveness for being so extreme isn’t an recipe for success — it’s
simply giving up and pretending we’re something we’re not. We gained
the right to govern for ourselves in 1973, and we should govern for
ourselves as we best see fit for our city and our interests. If that
offends the sensitivities of certain members of Congress (ironically
enough, the extreme ones on the fringes of US politics), so be it. We
can’t go about giving up one set of God-given rights in hopes of
gaining another. That, Gary, is extreme, and we shouldn’t accept it.
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Here’s what I actually wrote in themail on April 20: “Over the
past several months and years, DC government has worked to convince the
nation that our highest values and legal priorities are government
financing for abortions, especially for poor black women; legalizing
marijuana, with medical marijuana as the opening wedge; facilitating the
use of injectible illegal drugs by providing free hypodermic needles to
addicts; preventing poor children from receiving financial aid that
could enable them to attend private schools; legalizing gay marriage and
forbidding the participation of Catholic church organizations in
governmentally financed social service programs (though, interestingly,
not forbidding the participation of Islamic mosques) because of their
support for traditional morality; and even refusing a floor vote in the
House of Representatives for our Congressional delegate, if the cost of
that vote would be that the DC government could no longer deny its
citizens their Second Amendment rights. Those may be the highest values
of DC’s elected officials and voters, but collectively and taken as a
package they place us on the fringe of American politics, far to the
left of all states and all but a few municipal areas.” I left out, but
should have mentioned, online gambling, too.
I argued that taken as a package these five positions put DC on the
left fringe of US politics. Martin Austermuhle ignores two of these
positions, and argues that for the other three, taken one by one, he can
find a minority of US states and jurisdictions — sometimes a small
minority and sometimes a substantial minority — that has adopted one
or the other. Then he cites the policy arguments that have been used to
justify some of these positions. And thus he concludes that taking these
positions puts DC squarely in the US mainstream. Martin makes two other
mistakes of analysis. First, he believes that if a higher percentage of
a younger generation takes one position and a higher percentage of an
older generation takes a different position, then the position of the
younger generation should be given greater credibility and will
eventually become the majority. What he ignores is that young people
change their minds about many things as they mature, and that the same
person will take different political positions at fifteen, thirty,
forty-five, and sixty.
Second, Martin believes that the ideology of his crowd, politically
oriented twenty-somethings in Washington, DC, who are to the left of the
Democratic Party, is the norm. Martin is like Pauline Kael, who in 1972
famously said, “I live in a rather special world. I only know one
person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re
outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.”
Martin doesn’t know anyone who wouldn’t consider the constellation
of political positions I mentioned to be just middle-of-the-road common
sense. Anyone who disagrees is a crazy extremist, whose positions are to
be dismissed. The United States outside DC is a strange place.
Whether he admits it or not, Martin and I agree. I don’t think
statehood advocates are willing to pay any significant price to get
statehood, and he’s not willing to give up anything to get it. For
him, DC shouldn’t have to do anything to become one of the states,
except perhaps to yell at Congress, disrupt traffic on some of our
streets, or deface our flag. Instead, he demands that the US change to
accept DC’s politics. Good luck.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Distributed Generation Workshop, May 7
Sandra Mattavous-Frye, smfrye@opc-dc.gov
The Office of the People’s Counsel will hold a distributed
generation workshop, “generating electricity near where it will be
used,” on Saturday, May 7, 9:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m., at Walter E.
Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place, NW, Room 152A.
Distributed generation can be thought of as the process of generating
electricity at or near where it is to be used. Distributed generation
may be used for an individual home or groups of homes that have solar
panels on their roofs or small diesel, natural gas or propane generators
serving one or multiple homes. Distributed generation also allows
alternative electric power sources such as wind power generation,
hydropower generation or geothermal generation to be included on the
grid.
In the District of Columbia, around eight hundred residents are
either in the process of generating their own electricity or have
completed the installation of electric generation equipment. A common
challenge for these customers is getting their new equipment to work
seamlessly with PEPCO’s metering and billing systems while remaining
connected to PEPCO in the event of an emergency or to sell excess power
to the grid that can serve other customers. The Office of the People’s
Counsel’s Distributed Generation Workshop is designed to bring
together many of the experienced practitioners from the alternative
energy industry, utility and regulatory representatives and consumers
looking to take full advantage of these new service options.
Invitees are the Council of the District of Columbia, the DC Public
Service Commission, the District Department of the Environment, the Mt.
Pleasant Solar Cooperative, PEPCO, PJM Interconnection, SolarCity, Sol
Systems, Standard Solar, US Department of Energy, and WDC Solar. For
additional information, please contact OPC at 727- 3071. Disability
accommodations or language/sign interpreter services are available upon
request.
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DC Builds: Build It and They Will Ride, May 11
Stacy Adamson, sadamson@nbm.org
A panel discussion on how Washington, DC, can become more bikable
will be held on Wednesday, May 11, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Washington has
increased the number of bicyclists traveling for transportation by
adding bike lanes and bike share stations throughout the city. The
district’s bicycle infrastructure aims to create sustainable,
multi-modal transportation options, reduce congestion, and decrease
pollution, but how should the district expand biking infrastructure in
the future? A panel of experts discusses how Washington, DC, can become
more bike-friendly while exploring potential implementation challenges
including ease of use, safety, connectivity, and how the economic
downturn affects planning, design, and construction of new bicycle
facilities. The panel will be Jennifer L. Toole, AICP, ASLA, principal,
Toole Design Group; Shane Farthing, executive director, Washington Area
Bicyclist Association; Jim Sebastian, supervisory transportation
planner, Active Transportation Branch, District Department of
Transportation; and moderator Barbara McCann, executive director,
National Complete Streets Coalition. For more information, contact Stacy
Adamson, sadamson@nbm.org, 272-2448, ext. 3458.
At the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW (Judiciary Square
Metro, Red Line). $12, National Building Museum and Washington Area
Bicyclist Association members; free students; $20, nonmembers. Prepaid
registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HOUSING
Colleague Seeks Room for Rent
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com
A professional friend, in the DC area for up to six months, wants to
rent a private furnished room with private bath and kitchen privileges
in a private home. He’d like to be near a Metro or a bus to Metro.
I can vouch for him.
He’s having a challenge either finding something decent or finding
someone who will respond to postings. Any leads you have would be
appreciated. You can send leads to me (please and thanks) and I’ll
send on to him.
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