
A geovisual response to an LA Times blog entry showing mostly isolationist responses to an alternative history map of North America by Absolut Vodka.
This interactive map for Google Earth shows the familiar Absolut Vodka bottle labeled “Absolut Statehood” and placed inside of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia. These boundaries existed until 1847 after the residents of Virginia voted to cede back the portion of the District of Columbia that was west of the Potomac River.
Absolut Statehood represents the cartographic notion that the nation’s capital can become America’s 51st state*. Today there are over 550,000 American citizens living in the nation’s capital that are being denied the fundamental right of representation in Congress. This ongoing human rights violation currently practiced by the government of the United States has been denounced by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The United States is the only country in the industrialized world that forbids the residents of it’s capital city the right to elect representatives to their national legislature.
In 1980, the year of my birth, District residents passed an initiative calling for a constitutional convention for the explicit purpose of creating a new state in America. Two years later voters ratified the constitution of the new state called “New Columbia.” By the admission of the District of Columbia into the United States, the territory would become the 51st state according to legislation offered in the 98th Congress in 1983 and routinely re-introduced in succeeding Congresses.
Many feel that the campaign for statehood stalled after the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment failed in 1985 because it did not receive the required ratification by the legislatures of at least 38 of the 50 states within the required seven years of the amendment’s submission by the 95th Congress. In 1987, another constitution was drafted, which again referred to the proposed state as New Columbia. The last serious debate on statehood in Congress took place in November 1993, when D.C. statehood was defeated by a Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives by a vote of 277 to 153.
In 2004, the Democratic Party removed statehood from their political platform. Instead of advocating for statehood, the Democratic Party has chosen to promote watered down equality known simply as “voting rights.” Many people accidentally equate voting rights and statehood, yet they are vastly different.
Prior to the revolutionary war, American colonists had voting rights in the British Parliament, yet they did not have political autonomy and were at the mercy of unelected members of Parliament. Without the sovereignty that statehood provides, the residents of the District of Columbia will continue to be under the tyranny of 535 unelected members of Congress.
The misguided form of voting rights that is currently being promoted by Democratic Party, and supported by DNC puppet non-profits like DC Vote, involves giving the Delegate from the District of Columbia full voting power, while denying District residents representation in the Senate, whereby making DC residents only 1/3 represented in Congress. Since the constitution gives power to only states, the only logical and constitutionally legal way to give the residents of the District of Columbia a formal voice in Congress is through statehood.
As presidential candidates stump about bringing change to Washington, please do the intelligent thing and question their words. What kind of change will come to Washington when the people are still denied the sacred right to participate in their government? I maintain the opinion that change will only come to Washington when the people of the nation’s capital are given the voice they rightfully deserve.
* Don’t like odd numbers? If the residents want it, America could give Puerto Rico statehood too; which would bring the USA to 52 states.
#ADDED 4/9/08#
Absolut Vodka’s first Statehood campaign:
In 1991 Absolut began an art commissioning program to select artists from all 50 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia. Absolut Vodka arranged to run full-page ads in USA Today with images of the commissioned works every two weeks. Artists selected included Romero Britto, Jon Coffelt, Burton Morris and Rev. Howard Finster. A limited edition of 300 lithographs of each work were sold to raise funds for Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. As a commemoration to this campaign, “Absolut Statehood: 51 Painters, Visions of Their Home States” a book by Glenn O’Brien, was published with a foreword by Michel Roux of Carillon Importers with photography by Antonio Alia Guccione. 51 Absolut Statehood artists were interviewed by Peter Tunney and made into a film about the campaign. “Absolut To The People,” a Peter Tunney Film, was simulcast in New York and Hong Kong, March, 1993.
Related Statehood Entries:
- DC Colonist Cartoon: “Court Declares State Voters Tax Exempt in D.C.” – Washington Evening Star, March 13, 1940
- DC Colonist Cartoon: “Keep Out of U.S. Elections” – Washington Star, November 5, 1940
- DC Colonist Cartoon: “Disenfranchisement" – Washington Star, November 4th, 1930
- Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives: Hearing on the District of Columbia's Fiscal Year 2012 Budget: "Ensuring Fiscal Sustainability"
- DC Colonist Cartoon: "Election Day" - Washington Star, November 4th, 1924
- Feature in today's Weekend Pass Section of the Washington Post's Express Newspaper: "Geo-Beautiful"
- YouTube Video Showing Where George Washington Grew Hemp at Mount Vernon
- 52 cents in change // 52 centavos en cambio
- 51 cents in change
- Photos from Emancipation Day 2010 by Elvert Barnes
- TO MAKE A STATE OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - The New York Times, December 14, 1902
- Comments by Thomas Tredwell at the New York Ratifying Convention on July 2nd, 1788
- “Representation, Reforestation” Was Selected For The DC Urban Forest Project
- Second Class Citizen: A Shirt of Shame
- My Urban Forest Project Submission: "Representation, Reforestation"
- Justice Stafford Eloquent on Washington: Past, Present, and Future - The Washington Herald, May 9th, 1909
- Photograph of when an innocent card game made me feel sad
- The DC Colonist is now officially stock photo
- Pat Buchanan Prefers To Be A Colonist. I Do Not. [YouTube Video Clip of MSNBC's Morning Joe Show]
- My Response To Today's Washington Post Letter To The Editor By Ann Wass
- The D.C. Colonist Is The Subject Of A Letter To The Editor In Today's Washington Post
- The D.C. Colonist is featured today's The Reliable Source column in the Style Section of the Washington Post
- WAMU Coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia hearing titled "Greater Autonomy for the Nation's Capitol"
- TAFT STIRS CAPITAL BY SUFFRAGE SPEECH - The New York Times, May 10th, 1909
- The D.C. Statehood Vote - The Washington Post, November 20th, 1993
- Tax Fairness for D.C. - The New York Times, October 30th, 1993
- D.C. Statehood - The Washington Post, January 13th, 1993
- Statehood for the District of Columbia - The Boston Globe, December 2nd, 1992
- The State of Misgovernment - The New York Times, July 21st, 1992
- Grant D.C. Residents Full Rights - The Oregonian, April 15th, 1992
- The D.C. Plantation: Freedom Soon? - The New York Times, November 25th, 1991
- Free the Government's Plantation - The New York Times, October 6th, 1991
- Statehood for the District of Columbia - The Minneapolis Star and Tribune, June 27th, 1987
- Why Not Statehood for D.C. Citizens? - Seattle Times, May 11th, 1987
- [Washington Times] CITIZEN JOURNALISM: D.C. Voters Eye 51st-State Status By Ann Loikow
- The sign I posted outside of MTV's Real World DC house is transcribed in today's Washington Post
- A message to MTV's Real World DC cast members: IN THE REAL WORLD ALL AMERICANS DESERVE FULL REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS
- Happy 4th of July, but remember...
- Obama can't criticize Chavez on at least one issue
- Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton & Senator Joe Lieberman introduce a D.C. Statehood Bill
- What! A Bicycle Rifle? Yes?
- Thomas Jefferson's Map of Washington from March 31st, 1791
- Text of H.R. 259 - An act to retrocede the county of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, to the State of Virginia
- YouTube video of DC Colonists demonstrating at the first Nationals game at RFK Stadium
- "Let Us Now End American Colonialism" - A speech by Ernest Gruening delivered to the Delegates of the Alaska Constitutional Convention on November 9, 1955
- The 23rd Amendment - Time Magazine - March 31, 1961
- 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
- Hey Google & YouTube, those are not my Senators! I have no Senators!
- Hey Google & YouTube, that is not my Representative or Delegate!
- Washington Post Video of last night's Statehood Forum
- Indirectly mentioned in today's Washington Post
- YouTube Video featuring the 6pm News Coverage Mashup of the 2009 DC House Voting Rights Act
- Interviewed on MSNBC this morning
- Welcome to DC, we have no vote, we have no voice.
- YouTube Video of Newschannel 8's coverage of the "YES WE CAN - DC STATEHOOD NOW" poster
- Plagiarizing the official Inaugural Map to include a political message
- Yes We Can - DC Statehood Now!
- [FOUND MAP] New York City: The 51st State
- The American Flag in a 51 Star Configuration with One Star Removed
- My DC license plate redesign was discussed today on the WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdi Show
- DC.gov website confuses Statehood with Voting Rights & Representation
- What D.C. Statehood Would Mean To Black America - Ebony, October, 1990
- One Third Representation Flyer Posted Outside of Busboys & Poets
- The Organization For Security And Cooperation In Europe Continues To Press The US Goverment on Full Congressional Representation for D.C. Residents
- Quart Bag: A Community Art Show at the Civilian Art Projects
- The Dr. Bill Show!
- DC Residents say they want full democracy, like New Delhi.
- Experimenting with Facebook's advertisement system [part 3 - Twenty Phantom Women]
- ABSOLUT STATEHOOD
- The maps on Google Analytics suffer from Washington, DC's exclusion
- Google Charts API now includes small maps, but leaves out Washington, DC.
- Roll Call's Photo of the Week features the DC Colonist
- Voting Rights March Recap
- D.C. Voting Rights March...
- Fun with MyGoogleMaps...
- OSCE Finds US Government Violates Human Rights
- The U.S. Capitol is Off-Limits to the Public: An Exploration of Censorship's Perimeter
- Tom Davis Supports Statehood?
- THE GEOCOLONIAL SLOTS - Match 3 for Statehood!
- Interactive Inequality #3
- Interactive Inequality #2
- Interactive Inequality
- Lost in America's Last Colony
- Censored today in theMail...
- The New DC Flag...if HR 328 passes...
- Take 1/3 of a day off work for 1/3 Representation
- Third of representation a start, but not enough
- The New DC License Plate.. if H.R. 5388 passes
- Dennis Hastert's Office 3 Years ago... yesterday
- Is the DC Colonist a Netscape Celebrity?
- Salt Lake Tribune covers the D.C. Colonist
- ABC 7 Covers the D.C. Colonist...
- The DC Colonist is in a Scripts Howard wire report
- Taxation Without Representation Google Map
- I am featured in the Green Party's "Green Pages"
- I am mentioned in the Northwest Current
- International Body Backs Vote for D.C.
- OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopts Washington Declaration
- Censorship on the 4th of July
- Examiner Coverage of our OSCE Maritime Lobbying Effort
- We've got the support-
- The first DC Democracy Naval Battle
- Out of Committee
- Liberté, égalité, fraternité - OSCE
- Sway with me
- pre-press
- OSCE Rally Friday!
- www.osceindc.com
- DC City Council Passes OSCE Resolution
- DC Colonists video clip
- The D.C. Colonist makes his baseball debut!
- DCist Covers the Colonist
- DC Colonists - Flyer & Press Release
- The D.C. Colonist in the Washington Post
- The Colonist in the Post
- Congress Passes District's Budget
- It's Official....
- a Great B.A.D. Day
- B.A.D. Day Schedule
- B.A.D. Day is tomorrow
- B.A.D. Day Call to Action!
- its starting to get B.A.D.
Related Google Earth Entries:
ABSOLUT STATEHOOD
|| 4/8/2008 || 4:52 pm || Comments Off on ABSOLUT STATEHOOD || ||
Screen grab links to .kmz file for Google Earth
A geovisual response to an LA Times blog entry showing mostly isolationist responses to an alternative history map of North America by Absolut Vodka.
This interactive map for Google Earth shows the familiar Absolut Vodka bottle labeled “Absolut Statehood” and placed inside of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia. These boundaries existed until 1847 after the residents of Virginia voted to cede back the portion of the District of Columbia that was west of the Potomac River.
Absolut Statehood represents the cartographic notion that the nation’s capital can become America’s 51st state*. Today there are over 550,000 American citizens living in the nation’s capital that are being denied the fundamental right of representation in Congress. This ongoing human rights violation currently practiced by the government of the United States has been denounced by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The United States is the only country in the industrialized world that forbids the residents of it’s capital city the right to elect representatives to their national legislature.
In 1980, the year of my birth, District residents passed an initiative calling for a constitutional convention for the explicit purpose of creating a new state in America. Two years later voters ratified the constitution of the new state called “New Columbia.” By the admission of the District of Columbia into the United States, the territory would become the 51st state according to legislation offered in the 98th Congress in 1983 and routinely re-introduced in succeeding Congresses.
Many feel that the campaign for statehood stalled after the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment failed in 1985 because it did not receive the required ratification by the legislatures of at least 38 of the 50 states within the required seven years of the amendment’s submission by the 95th Congress. In 1987, another constitution was drafted, which again referred to the proposed state as New Columbia. The last serious debate on statehood in Congress took place in November 1993, when D.C. statehood was defeated by a Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives by a vote of 277 to 153.
In 2004, the Democratic Party removed statehood from their political platform. Instead of advocating for statehood, the Democratic Party has chosen to promote watered down equality known simply as “voting rights.” Many people accidentally equate voting rights and statehood, yet they are vastly different.
Prior to the revolutionary war, American colonists had voting rights in the British Parliament, yet they did not have political autonomy and were at the mercy of unelected members of Parliament. Without the sovereignty that statehood provides, the residents of the District of Columbia will continue to be under the tyranny of 535 unelected members of Congress.
The misguided form of voting rights that is currently being promoted by Democratic Party, and supported by DNC puppet non-profits like DC Vote, involves giving the Delegate from the District of Columbia full voting power, while denying District residents representation in the Senate, whereby making DC residents only 1/3 represented in Congress. Since the constitution gives power to only states, the only logical and constitutionally legal way to give the residents of the District of Columbia a formal voice in Congress is through statehood.
As presidential candidates stump about bringing change to Washington, please do the intelligent thing and question their words. What kind of change will come to Washington when the people are still denied the sacred right to participate in their government? I maintain the opinion that change will only come to Washington when the people of the nation’s capital are given the voice they rightfully deserve.
* Don’t like odd numbers? If the residents want it, America could give Puerto Rico statehood too; which would bring the USA to 52 states.
#ADDED 4/9/08#
Absolut Vodka’s first Statehood campaign:
Related Statehood Entries:
Related Google Earth Entries: