Is DC a state?
I had an interesting cultural experience yesterday evening and this morning. I submitted a photograph to waferbaby’s city project. Daniel asked readers to take a photograph of someplace in their city and send it to him along with a description. I sent him a picture of the inside of Union Station because, let’s face it, there are way too many photographs of the Washington Monument, Capitol Building, and White House.
Daniel wrote me back and asked me if Washington was the state or the city. It had not occurred to me that I was talking to a non-American. I told him it was the city, and he wrote back asking if “DC” was the state.
That’s a dangerous question.
For those of you who are unaware: Washington DC is not in Maryland nor is it in Virginia. It is not in a state at all. It is a District of Columbia, “Columbia” being an archaic way of referring to the United States. That means it’s federal property. DC citizens have been agitating for statehood, or at least congressional representation, for a very long time.
Yes, that’s right. Congressional representation. Although DC residents do get to vote for president, they don’t get any Senators in the Senate or Representatives in the House of Representatives. None. Zilch. They have no representation. However, they still pay taxes. Hence the new DC license plate.
In addition, the city’s budget has to be approved by Congress.
So there you have it. The residents of the capitol of the “most free country in the world” don’t have representation. Why don’t they have representation? Something was overlooked in the US Constitution. Why hasn’t it been corrected?
Beats me.
