Katrina vanden Heuvel: DC Voting Rights (continued)

[marmar]

From The Nation:


BLOG | Posted 04/13/2007 @ 4:51pm
DC Voting Rights (continued)


Monday is Emancipation Day in the District – commemorating April 16, 1862 – when 3,100 people were freed in the city, nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation.

This Emancipation Day, thousands of DC residents and pro-democracy activists will participate in a Voting Rights March along with Mayor Adrian Fenty, (non-voting) Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rep. John Lewis ☼, Republican Reps. Tom Davis and Christopher Shays, Republican Secretary Jack Kemp, and others. The march is organized by DC Vote.

"On Monday we will march for the most basic civil right," DC Vote Executive Director Ilir Zherka said. "When we demand the vote for DC, I believe we will make a difference. Congress knows we are coming, and the President knows it's time to bring democracy to our nation's capital."

"This is the first march in 10 years for DC voting rights," Mayor Fenty told the Washington Post. "I think residents have a sense of urgency, and their patience has worn thin."

Worn thin, indeed. Just when it looked like the House would pass an historic bill granting DC a full vote in Congress (along with an additional seat for Utah – scheduled to receive one according to Census figures), the Republicans tied up the bill by attempting to use it to gut the city's gun control laws. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=186108