Sirened

I normally don’t directly express my opinion on political matters, but I am going to on this issue. While it’s nice that the District of Columbia carries electoral votes and therefore counts in terms of electing the president, it’s rather ridiculous that they don’t have a vote in the United States Congress.

The District of Columbia is represented by Eleanor Holmes Norton (as seen on The Colbert Report) in the House of Representatives, but she’s prohibited from actually voting. Thereby giving the people of D.C. no voice in Congress.

There is a website called DCVote.org that is working to lobby Congress and educate Americans on this issue. America’s separation from Britain was fueled by “no taxation without representation,” a slogan that is also being echoed by DCVote.org. No word yet on whether they will dump oil into the Potomac River.

Residents of D.C. can’t even write to a senator to complain about their lack of representation because they have no senator to write to. The kicker for me here is that since World War I, 1,686 residents of D.C. have died in combat, sent to war without proper representation in their government.

I suppose this is appropriate for a government filled with hypocrisies though, we shout mightily for democracy and deny it to those who live within our nations capital.

photo credit: flickr

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