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State News Release |
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| Democracy for D.C., Too? |
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D.C. Statehood Green Party Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Contact: STATEHOOD GREENS TO BUSH: DEMOCRACY FOR D.C., TOO? WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Members of the D.C. Statehood Green Party challenged President Bush to make good locally on his inaugural speech promising a U.S. commitment to global democracy -- by granting democracy to the people who live in the District of Columbia. "If the President really believes his words about democracy and freedom, he'll work towards these goals in his own backyard," said Ann Wilcox, a member of the Statehood Green Party's steering committee. "The residents of Washington, D.C. deserve the same rights and self-governance that every other American enjoys. We don't have that now. Congress and the White House wield the power to force laws and policies on D.C. that we don't want and to overturn locally passed legislation. We also lack voting representation in Congress, but voting representation without self-governance will not give us democracy." "D.C., with its majority African American population, is treated like a prison where civil rights are legally denied," added Debony Heart, Green Party member and resident of Ward 5. "This situation is too easy to correct. If President Bush doesn't take action to grant D.C. full civil rights and democracy, it's proof that the ideals he chanted in his Inauguration Day speech were just more lies." In 2001, Mayor Anthony Williams dismantled and privatized D.C. General Hospital, the District's only full-service public health facility, under orders from the congressionally appointed Financial Control Board, causing a local health care crisis. Congress overturned Initiative 59, a medical marijuana ballot initiative that passed with a 69% majority in 1998. Washington, D.C., alone among cities, is prohibited from taxing commuters from the suburbs who work within its borders. "President Bush could easily introduce legislation that would restore constitutional rights and democracy to D.C.," said Adam Eidinger, who ran for D.C. 'Shadow' Representative on the Statehood Green Party ticket in 2004. "A bill in Congress to change the constitutionally mandated federal enclave to include just the White House, Capitol, Mall, and other federal properties would free up the residents of D.C. to determine our own political future, whether statehood or retrocession to Maryland, or some other option, to be decided by a democratic vote. This bill would only require a simple majority, rather than the 2/3 necessary for a constitutional amendment." Statehood Greens note that Congress changed the District's borders once before, when it ceded Alexandria to the state of Virginia. The D.C. Statehood Party, founded by civil rights activists in 1970 with statehood for D.C. as its chief political goal, merged with the D.C. Green Party in 1999 to form the D.C. Statehood Green Party. The platform of the Green Party of the United States calls for statehood for the District of Columbia. MORE INFORMATION The D.C. Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
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