LISTEN TO JOHNNY BARNES
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There’s a star for every state and a state for every star. We want our star. – Johnny Barnes
[Due to the extreme heat the D.C. Statehood ‘Teach In’ begins at 4:00 p.m.]
“Our fate lies in the hands of those 535 people who go to work in the Capitol Building on the House side and on the Senate side,” said Johnny Barnes, executive director of the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital Area. “They can make a judgment that can remove the stain on America’s democracy… that can seal the crack in the Liberty Bell through which 600,000 Americans have fallen.”
The ACLU-NCA is hosting a Statehood for D.C. “teach in” Thursday, June 9 on the West Lawn at the U.S. Capital from noon to 9:00 p.m. in an effort to educate congressional staffers about “Who we are. That we are,” said Barnes.
The District of Columbia is “not just monuments and government buildings. It’s Americans, it’s taxpayers, it’s soldiers who go off to war, it’s garbage men, it’s lawyers, it’s doctors. It’s like any place else. We want to be the same. It’s a simple request. And it requires a simple solution: a majority vote in the House and Senate and signature of the president.”
“There are 193 countries in the world. The United States is the only one that denies basic political rights to the residents of its capital while granting them to all other citizens,” notes the ACLU-NCA’s flier for the teach in. “Since 1801, Congress has denied the people of Washington, D.C. representation in the House of Representatives and the Senate. All other Americans vote to elect members of Congress – D.C. residents are forbidden to do so.”
Along with speakers, Thursday’s events will include music, and a performance by Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-go. “Every progressive movement, every movement towards change has involved music, whether it’s ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ or ‘All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chance,’ said Barnes.
The teach in comes at an interesting time. Recently Mayor Vincent Gray and six sitting members of the D.C. Council were among 41 arrested protesting D.C.’s lack of statehood outside the Hart Senate Office Building.
“On April 11 of 2011 I believe history will record that a movement was launched that will not be stopped. That the arrest of Mayor Gray and the DC 41 unleashed a power and a fury that will no longer be contained,” said Barnes.
“I predict that many more will be arrested, many more will go to jail, many more will protest because folks are just at wits’ end and at their limit in terms of continued denial of the basic right of citizenship, and that’s to fully participate under the laws in which we are governed. As we see democracy trying to spring up around the world we now see it springing up in Washington, D.C.”
Related Stories:
- Johnny Barnes Calls for Statehood (Not Voting Rights) for the District of Columbia
- “The 41 for 51”: 41 Arrested in Push to Make D.C. the 51st State
Related Links:
http://aclu-nca.org/statehood