The other day I was looking around on the DC government website and noticed this lexical ambiguity. When a visitor hovers their mouse over the “DC Guide” section they are given the option of learning more about DC Statehood. However, when a visitor clicks on the link that says “DC Statehood,” they are taken to a page that only mentions the word “statehood” once and uses the term voting rights. Instead of being given more information about how citizens can achieve DC Statehood, visitors are given cursory information about voting rights and the struggle of DC residents to attain representation in Congress. Moreover, the text incorrectly explains the role of the shadow delegation– that are elected to lobby for statehood, not “lobbies Congress on District issues and concerns.” I am not going to expound on the difference between Statehood & Voting Rights in this posting because I have already written at length about the difference between the two in earlier entries (see list below). However, the more important issue, and the reason I am posting this, is to shows how little effort the DC government is currently putting into DC Statehood, especially now that there is a favorable climate for the enfranchisement and that goal of DC Statehood is undermined by using “Voting Rights” as the method of providing equality for DC residents. I believe the page should contain more information about the history of DC’s struggle for self-determination and more information about routes to achieve statehood.
UPDATE – The DC Government has updated their website to include https://statehood.dc.gov
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