An End to Injustice
Dennis Kucinich posted the following entry to his blog on December 1, 2003
In the shadow of the Capitol dome, thousands of DC residents live with the burden of conditions that have no place in the strongest, wealthiest nation in the world. Poverty. Illiteracy. HIV infection rates 10 times the national average. No public hospital. Substandard housing. Crumbling schools. We have an obligation to right these wrongs. As someone who grew up in an inner city, someone whose parents were never able to own a home, I understand what it's like to live in need. Coming from a disadvantaged background and becoming mayor of Cleveland, then a state legislator and now a member of Congress, I know it's possible to live up to one's dreams. It is a travesty that schoolchildren in the District cannot grow up aspiring to be a voting member of Congress -- unless they end up living somewhere else.
It's worth noting that the 2004 presidential election is the 40th anniversary of DC's first vote for President. Prior to 1964, DC residents stood on the sidelines every four years and watched as their fellow Americans elected a leader and they could not. In the ensuing 40 years, folks in the District have received varied levels of support from their Presidents. Our current President opposes statehood and even full voting rights in Congress for the District of Columbia. I'm here to pledge my support for both.
It is simply unacceptable that the current administration has cost thousands of lives and spent tens of billions of dollars in the name of establishing democracy for the residents of Baghdad, when there is no democracy to be found for the residents of our own nation's capital. As the candidate who led opposition to the Iraq war in the U.S. House and marched with 500,000 anti-war protesters last February, it's not lost on me that the District of Columbia had no vote on this war -- for or against -- in Congress. It's time to bring the troops home. DC has been subject to the draft in the past, and has had plenty of casualties in plenty of wars, none of which were wars authorized by the people of DC. It's time to end this injustice.
I am running on a platform of equal access for all Americans. I have introduced a bill in Congress that would provide every single American with health coverage. Access to health care for all. I am the only one with a plan to fund nationwide pre-kindergarten and the rebuilding of our schools. Access to education for all. I am the only candidate who voted against the ironically-named USA PATRIOT Act. Access to civil liberties for all. I am the sponsor of the National Housing Trust Fund, which would create affordable housing across the United States, including in DC. Access to housing for all.
Access to democracy for all is just as important.
Without equal access to democracy, DC residents have had to grin and bear it as Congress has held up their own, locally-raised tax dollars during partisan budget negotiations. They've watched as Congress has blocked them from counting their own votes on a medical marijuana initiative. As Congress has discussed repealing their local gun control laws and imposing the death penalty. As Congress has moved to impose school vouchers. DC has only a single nonvoting House delegate to speak up during this entire process.
The federal government already treats the District of Columbia as a state for several hundred different purposes. This includes taxation, maintaining a National Guard and service on federal juries. The District of Columbia already has departments and agencies that perform state functions, such as motor vehicles, securities and insurance regulation, and even a state education office. It's time for us to take that extra step. The National Capital Service Area should be shrunk to include the National Mall and the federal buildings immediately around it, and the remaining area should be made the 51st state.
I'm for statehood because the residents of DC have made it their choice and I respect that choice. For more than 200 years, District residents have had to live with Congress and the President paying too little attention to their preferences. The Constitution requires that Senators be elected "of the several states," and statehood for DC would ensure that finally gets its Senators.
Hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised people in DC need a strong voice in their President, and I will be that voice. Changing the license plates on a limousine days before leaving office is not enough. Saying DC shouldn't have a vote because it's not a state is definitely not enough. The President needs to step up and use his political influence to correct this historic injustice.
As my party's nominee for the presidency, I will insist that the Democratic Party platform include DC statehood. As President, I pledge to use my first State of the Union address to call on Congress to grant statehood for the District of Columbia. I will appoint a special adviser on DC affairs, to work with Congress toward this important goal.
It's time for the entire nation, and the entire Congress, to hear these words from the President's mouth. It's time to free DC, and I intend to be the President to do it.
Dennis J. Kucinich
First Published on blog.letsfreedc.org.
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