Envisioning a statehood campaign

Written by: Keshini Ladduwahetty on Dec 8, 2009 10:21 AM EST

Next Thursday, Councilmember Michael Brown is holding a second meeting of "stakeholders" in the statehood campaign.  This is a group of organizations and individuals that are active on DC voting rights & self-government, e.g. Stand Up for Democracy, DCVote, our Shadow delegation, DC4D, Statehood Greens, etc.  The purpose of the meeting is to seek public input to the statehood campaign next year.

Since we have not had a chance to meet to discuss this issue, let's collaborate online.

Here are my thoughts, I'd love to hear yours!

After working for six years for this cause, I am convinced that the biggest obstacle to full citizenship rights is the public confusion over the federal government and the city of Washington, DC.  As the federal government increasingly draws the ire of both the right-wing and left-wing, our association with the federal government becomes a serious liability.  We must clearly separate ourselves, and we must do this in a blatantly physical way.

Imagine that in 2010, we physically mark the National Capitol Area, so that when someone steps off Constitution Avenue (or wherever the boundary is), they see a sign alerting them that they are leaving Washington, DC and entering Washington, New Columbia (or whatever we choose to call ourselves).  Imagine that they see cars driving around with completely different license plates from those of US congressmembers.  Imagine that they see a full-blown ad campaign that explains the political subjugation of our city in visually compelling ways.  Imagine that we have newspapers and websites that use the new name for our city.  Imagine that when folks drive across Western Avenue, they see signs saying that are entering New Columbia. 

These are actions that we can take through our local government that Congress would have a hard time over-riding.  And even if they do, I'd like to see them take those signs down without some serious civil disobedience. 

What do you think?  What are your ideas?

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