Photo courtesy of The Washington Post
LISTEN TO MAYOR VINCE GRAY
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It clearly isn’t going to come from simply being nice or being complacent or being apathetic. – Mayor Vincent Gray
The District of Columbia lacks statehood, but it does not lack leadership. Monday, Mayor Vincent Gray and six sitting members of the D.C. Council were among the 41 arrested outside the Hart Senate Office Building in an act of civil disobedience.
While Congress debates the budget, District residents must wait and see how they will be impacted. Without a vote in the Senate or a full vote in the House of Representatives, District residents are at the mercy of the very Congress which refuses to grant them the rights provided to all Americans.
Current Congressional proposals would prohibit the District from using its own funding to pay for abortions, while also requiring the District to invest in a school voucher program.
The group arrested is being dubbed “The 41 for 51” – the 41 arrested in the struggle to make D.C. the 51st state.
Shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday morning at Capitol Police headquarters, the first five of those arrested were released. They included Mayor Gray, Council Chairman Kwame Brown, At-large Councilmember Michael Brown, Eugene Dewitt Kinlow of DC Vote, and Jack Evans (no, not the Ward 2 councilmember of the same name, but an NAACP member; who happened to have served as an ANC commissioner in Ward 2 at the same time as the other Jack Evans.)
Directly following his release after seven hours of incarceration, Mayor Gray said, “It’s time for the people of the District of Columbia to stand up and let this nation know that we want to be first class citizens like everybody else.”
Council Chairman Kwame Brown spoke next: “This shows a united front [in] this city, with this mayor leading the way… The world was watching and saw that here in the District of Columbia there are residents without full representation.”
After stating that he was hungry, Councilmember Michael Brown said, “It’s really like a civil rights issue… [We] were just in a cell, on a slab, waiting to be processed… [We saw the] folks who fought for us in the ’60s [and] it’s now time for us to fight for the D.C. residents to get the independence we deserve.”
Responding to reporters’ questions, Gray said, “I came to the protest to be a part of a group that was going to make known our dissatisfaction with what has happened with… these riders that have been inappropriately placed in our budget. I didn’t really think about getting arrested or not getting arrested. But once the demonstration started in the street I was going to be right there with my fellow citizens and absolutely was proud to be arrested on behalf of our great city.”
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