The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

|| 2/14/2009 || 6:05 pm || + Render A Comment || ||
The 23rd Amendment – Time Magazine – March 31, 1961

I found this article when I was looking up more information about the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution:

Thanks to a succession of oversights by the Founding Fathers and early Congresses, the residents of the District of Columbia have never enjoyed one particular constitutional right cherished by all other Americans: the privilege of voting. There was no reasoning attending the oversights; it was just plain neglect.† Last week Rhode Island cast the 36th affirmative vote for the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, giving 746,000 Washingtonians the right to vote in presidential elections — and three electoral votes. Ohio and Kansas are expected to ratify the amendment this week, making the necessary two-thirds majority for official adoption (only one legislature—Arkansas—rejected the amendment outright, on the ground that 54% of the District’s citizens are Negroes).

But after 161 years, Washingtonians will be limited to voting for the President and Vice President. They will continue to have no representative in Congress, no voice in their municipal government.

†One segment of the capital gained the right to vote in 1846, when one-third of the District’s land area, now Arlington County, was ceded back to Virginia.

What this article shows to me is how racist America used to be….
In some ways, even with an African American president, it still is.
sigh

Related 23rd Amendment Entries:

|| 2/11/2009 || 2:43 pm || + Render A Comment || ||
The D.C. Colonist receives a warm welcome from Senator Joe Lieberman at today’s Business Meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Roll Call’s photo of the week from April, 2007

Today I attended the Business Meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs dressed in my colonial attire. I wear this costume for every congressional hearing related to representation for the residents of Washington, DC. I arrived early enough to snag a decent seat and sat down next to my friend Shadow Senator Michael D. Brown. As the other Senators arrived for the meeting he & I chatted about ideas related to what we can do next to get statehood for the District of Columbia.

A few minutes later when Senator Joe Lieberman walked in, Shadow Senator Michael D. Brown stood up, greeted him, and shook his hand. Senator Lieberman then looks at me and said something along the lines of “I’m glad to see that we have a colonist here. Do you go by the name of Paul Revere?” I said, “No, I’m just a DC colonist.” He followed, “So you don’t have a name? Just ‘DC Colonist’?” and I responded, “I’m just a DC Colonist that suffers taxation without representation.” He smiled, walked over to the end of the table, and sat down at his seat. A few minutes later the hearing began and he decided to greet me publicly…..

Click here to listen to the audio
or
Click here to watch the video

[to watch the video, you first need to hit play, then scroll the slider over to about 21:10 to watch the introduction]

Senator Lieberman said:

I do want to note and welcome Mayor Fenty of the District of Columbia we are honored that you are here and a somewhat older resident of the District from colonial times [laughter] also present. I gather you are making the general point about taxation without representation [off camera I nod in the affirmative]. Okay I don’t need to make my case any stronger than that [laughter]. Thank you for being here.

Also worthy of mention is that later on in the hearing (at around 43:15 into the video), Senator George Voinovich mentions the time when the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were in Washington, DC and we lobbied them on the Potomac River (right photo). Hearing him mention that day made me laugh. It was one of my favorite demonstrations I’ve ever taken part in! I remember watching the parliamentarians applaud our efforts from the ship and the following day they passed a resolution calling on the United States government to give DC residents congressional representation.

In the end, only Senator John McCain voted against the bill, S.R. 160, the senate version of the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009, and it passed the committee with a vote of 11-1. Unfortunately, I agree with McCain’s opinion, only states should receive representation in Congress.

I feel that DC Vote and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton wasted a huge opportunity to give DC residents equal representation in Congress by reintroducing this three-year-old, constitutionally questionable legislation that was written for a Republican controlled congress. Times have changed, however, the bill and its constitutional underpinnings have not. I’m not sure what will happen next to the bill, like when will it be voted on, but I am sure it will be challenged on it’s constitutionality. In the meantime, I’m going to continue to work with my Shadow Delegation on lobbying for statehood for the District of Columbia.

UPDATE: February 12th, 2009 – Comedian Stephan Colbert interviewed Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton the following night:

The Colbert ReportMon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

DC Voting Rights Act – Eleanor Holmes Norton

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

Its too bad the editors missed the chance with the Colonist…

Related Colonist Entries:

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|| 2/9/2009 || 6:26 pm || Comments Off || ||
Hey Google & YouTube, those are not my Senators! I have no Senators!

In continuance of yesterday’s posting, recently Congress changed their rules to allow Senators and Representatives to utilize YouTube to share information with their constituents. Today I noticed a secondary tragic flaw in their layout. Since the residents of Washington, DC are denied representation in the Senate, the coders at YouTube are using the state of the District of Columbia to show videos from different congressional committees. Instead of incorrectly listing DC as a state, they should include a link to “Committees.” Moreover, as you can see above & below, Google maps remove the words District of Columbia at different scales. This further shows how little YouTube/Google cares about the half a million disenfranchised residents of the District of Columbia.

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|| 2/8/2009 || 6:21 pm || Comments Off || ||
Hey Google & YouTube, that is not my Representative or Delegate!

Recently Congress changed their rules to allow Senators and Representatives to utilize YouTube to share information with their constituents. Today I noticed a tragic flaw in their layout. Since the residents of Washington, DC are denied representation in Congress, the coders at YouTube are using the state of the District of Columbia to show videos from different congressional committees, not from my elected “Shadow” Representative Mike Panetta or Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Moreover, as you can see below, the Google maps remove the words District of Columbia at different scales. This further shows how little YouTube/Google cares about the people of the District of Columbia:

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|| 2/6/2009 || 11:55 pm || Comments Off || ||
Washington Post Video of last night’s Statehood Forum

if the video does not show up in your RSS reader, click here to view it on my website

Last night attended the DC Statehood Green Party’s forum called “DC Statehood, Now Is Our Time.” The event featured the entire elected shadow delegation as well as two city councilmembers and other leaders of this civil rights struggle. I also recorded much of the event, but I haven’t put a video together yet.

Hamil Harris from the Washington Post who made the video above, also wrote a brief write-up of the event if you are interested.

My favorite snippet:

Charles Cassell, who chaired of the DC Statehood Constitutional Convention during the early years of Home Rule, said the late activist Julius Hobson would be upset had he lived to see this day.

|| 1/28/2009 || 5:03 pm || Comments Off || ||
Indirectly mentioned in today’s Washington Post

Hoyer Says He Will Soon Bring Bill to House Floor

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; Page B03

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer vowed yesterday to hold a vote “in the very near future” on legislation that would give the District a full voting seat in Congress.

“As majority leader, I tell you I intend to bring that bill to the floor,” Hoyer (D-Md.) told the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He criticized Washington’s status, saying the city is “the only capital in the free world whose citizens do not have a voting member of their parliament.”

The hearing marked the first step in the bill’s path through Congress. It drew an overflow crowd to the wood-paneled room, including the measure’s sponsor, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and numerous activists — one in a purple colonial-style coat and a tricorn hat.

These photos were taken in 2006 in the same room where representatives were discussing the same unconstitutional bill.

Its sad that while times have changed, my colonial status has not…

Related Colonist Entries:

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|| 1/27/2009 || 10:55 pm || Comments Off || ||
YouTube Video featuring the 6pm News Coverage Mashup of the 2009 DC House Voting Rights Act

Today was the first hearing for the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009. Although I feel this bill is flagrantly unconstitutional, I attended the hearing……

This video features three clips I recorded and the 6pm coverage of three Washington, DC news organizations. The video starts out with my friend Chris on the microphone outside of the Rayburn building, then cuts to the ABC7 coverage, then cuts to the line waiting to get into the hearing, then cuts to the DC Fox5 coverage, then cuts to my footage inside of the hearing room, which features DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, and finally concludes with NBC4′s coverage.

In each of the clips you can spot me in the footage wearing my colonist outfit, which was worn to highlight the fact that DC residents are actually colonists who are forced to live under the tyranny of 535 unelected members of congress and suffer taxation without representation.

Related Colonist Entries:

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|| 1/19/2009 || 4:24 pm || Comments Off || ||
Interviewed on MSNBC this morning

Freeze frame from MSNBC featuring the Yes We Can - DC Statehood Now poster

not me in the background…

This morning after I woke up and turned on the TV, I noticed that someone in the background was holding up one of the “Yes We Can – DC Statehood Now!” posters (above). I decided remove my poster from the window and head down to the Mall to see if I could join the person. After I arrived it turned out that the person had already left, but fortunately the crowd was pretty thin around filming area and I was able to go right up to the fence and hold up my sign. Around 10am David Shuster went outside and interviewed different people around the fence and eventually came up to me. He let me speak about DC statehood for about 15 seconds on live TV! It was quite rewarding to say the least! I ended up staying around the fence holding up the sign for the next 3 hours and left when I started to get hungry. I hope to get the footage shortly and when I do, I’ll post it here.

|| 1/17/2009 || 3:07 pm || Comments Off || ||
Welcome to DC, we have no vote, we have no voice.

I spotted these prints by “Hear Our Voice” outside of the Convention Center today. They all mention something about DC’s lack of representation in Congress. My favorite one features Michelle Obama and says “Michelle Obama rocks the mic. DC has no mic.” Read more about these posters here.

|| 1/15/2009 || 11:50 pm || Comments Off || ||
YouTube Video of Newschannel 8′s coverage of the “YES WE CAN – DC STATEHOOD NOW” poster

I was able to snag this video from the Newschannel 8 website and upload to YouTube. I know its not quite legal, but neither is being denied representation in Congress.

Below is the text of the article:

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|| 1/13/2009 || 6:45 pm || Comments Off || ||
Plagiarizing the official Inaugural Map to include a political message

I decided to not update my 2005 Inaugural Map for this month’s inaugural activities, but since I’ve been receiving so many visitors looking for one, I decided to plagiarize the official map to include a message about DC Statehood.

|| 1/11/2009 || 4:20 pm || Comments Off || ||
A short YouTube video from the “Let Gaza Live” demonstration

This YouTube video contains two short clips. The first video clip was taken in Lafayette Park, located just north of the White House, as the march was just starting. The second video clip was taken about 15 minutes later at the corner of 15th & New York Ave as the march continued its way through the streets of Washington, DC.

|| 1/10/2009 || 1:29 pm || Comments Off || ||
Yes We Can – DC Statehood Now!

Yesterday I spotted this sign on K Street. They were put up so that people coming to DC for the inauguration will be reminded of DC’s second-class status.

|| 12/24/2008 || 6:34 pm || Comments Off || ||
[FOUND MAP] New York City: The 51st State

I have rallied for years about having DC become the 51st state in America. Even last week I redesigned the American flag to address my feelings toward this subject. However today I came across this map above that mentions the 51st state and predates the organization of the DC Statehood Movement.

In 1969 author Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York City and one aspect of his campaign was New York City secession through urban statehood. This lovely map shows all the neighborhoods in each of the boroughs and subtly pokes fun at the current “state” of New York City.

I can’t help but wonder, what if this political option was pursued again? Would New York City residents be interested in having federal funds being directed to the city instead of the rest of the state? Political climate aside, would Americans be more receptive if DC statehood was concurrently offered so that the number states is not an odd number? Or is America just stuck at 50 because its a nice number?

When president-elect Barack Obama assumes office, he’ll be the first black president to live in the same federal district that has a majority black population who can never duplicate the steps in his American Dream. His path to presidency included a path no resident of the nation’s capital can follow- he was a United States senator. Without two senators like every other state, the residents of the nation’s capital, unlike the residents of New York City, are still second-class citizens denied the same equality every other American enjoys. Will Obama be a real leader and address this fundamental flaw in our government?

While the map above proposes the concept of urban statehood, there is also the notion of urban / island balancing worth mentioning. The boroughs themselves are drawn as distinct counties and in some respects their natural geographies create urban islands, like Manhattan & Staten, within the unified state of New York City. President-elect Barack Obama comes from a former island territory, now state, Hawaii, which was brought into the union at nearly the same time as Alaska for balancing purposes. Could urban statehood, like that of Washington, DC or New York City, be balanced with statehood for other American islands, like Guam, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands? Or with the islands having a majority population of non-white people, like their urban counterparts, be a lurking reminder that racism still present in America? Should congressional representation be denied to American citizens simply based upon how their geography happens to be located or politically aligned? Sadly, I think thats what we have today and, to me, its veiled racism defended as normal partisan politics.

Click here to read more about the map and view numerous close-up details.

|| 12/20/2008 || 2:55 pm || Comments Off || ||
YouTube Video of Saint Louis Buy Nothing Day 2002 by Aaron Michaels

Earlier this week I decided to add this archived video to the repository known as YouTube. I’ve had it for 6 years now and decided to finally upload the video because I could not find anywhere else on-line. I still feel the message that we were delivering then is the same as now: don’t go into debt buying presents for others during the holiday season and if you must give presents, try making them first.

The article that was published in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch regarding this demonstration was the first time my name appeared in newspapers. The story behind this video goes like this….

On October 2nd, 2002 I created a Yahoo Group dedicated to the planning of Buy Nothing Day in Saint Louis. After a few planning meetings and e-mail discussions, the members of group decided to create giant credit cards that we’d drag around the malls in the Saint Louis area. We also produced & handed out fliers with suggestions on how to avoid going into debt during the holiday season.

This video by Aaron Michaels highlights the news coverage we generated and documents the message we were advocating. The first part is a music video featuring a modified Christmas carol sung by Sara Lucas spliced with footage from the news & us dragging the cards and handing out fliers. The second part of the video features news clips & interviews with participants highlighting why chose to demonstrate. I show up around 4:35 into the video.

I haven’t gone out of the way to purchase gifts for my family this year. Its nice that we’ve stopped doing the gifts for nearly 10 years now. I am going to Colorado next week to visit some of my family and I feel my presence will be the best gift I can give to rarely-seen family. Interestingly, I think yesterday’s commissioned map follows closely with this video’s messaging because the client was asking me to make her a gift. It wasn’t like client decided to hitup Walmart for the gift that millions of others might get, rather she went for something that’s truly one of kind.

Related Adbusters Entries:

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A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future.