This year, District residents will have the opportunity to vote on a ballot initiative that would raise the minimum wage from $10.50 per hour to $15 per hour. As one of the nation’s most progressive and most expensive cities, the initiative is likely to pass. But if the Republican Congress decides that the District doesn’t deserve a $15 per hour minimum wage, for whatever reason, then we won’t have it.
That’s the way it works when you live in a federal district under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress, an institution not particularly well-known for its vigorous defense of civil and human rights. You can have a population larger than Wyoming, have more residents in the military than 31 other states and pay twice the national average in federal taxes and still have your voter initiative overturned by elected representatives who make make it very clear that they don’t represent District residents. No one with voting rights in the United States Congress represents District residents.
So, it is no surprise that D.C. natives and long-term residents get hot under the collar when you bring up statehood. Most people who live outside of the District just don’t get it. Which is insanely frustrating because like any other civil rights issue, there will be no movement forward unless anger over the District’s lack of representation spreads nationwide. As District residents by definition do not live next door to Nevada residents or Pennsylvania residents, etc., there’s little hope of spreading the cause.
Cincinnati-based artist Mary Clare Rietz is trying to change that with Outside/In: Perspectives on DC Statehood (a guided walk). This event is an opportunity for those who want to learn more about the statehood issue and those who know all about the statehood issue to get together and exchange ideas.
This event is FOR DC RESIDENTS. It will be opportunity for D.C. residents to meet with artists from outside of the region who are actually interested in working for D.C. Statehood. So if you have the time this weekend, please show up.
In the wake of the most recent attack on Paris, citizens across the globe are in mourning over the lives lost in the attack, which the extremist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) have reportedly claimed was their doing. People across the globe are demonstrating their mourning for those who were killed or injured in Paris via social media (Facebook users laying a transparent French flag over their profile pictures, which has been criticized) and the organizing of vigils and rallies. Seeing people in sincere grief over the lives lost in Paris gives me hope that we are slowly, but surely, becoming a more empathetic, humane global community.
However, I find it difficult to witness these actions alongside the lack of recognition and/or awareness Western nations have for the lives of people who aren’t living in wealthy, Western nations.
This past summer, 147 people were killed at Garissa University College in Kenya by Somalian extremist group, al-Shabaab. Despite global coverage of this tragedy, the outcry in response to the horrors committed in Kenya paled in comparison to flood of sorrow and solidarity given to the citizens of Paris. What do these differing responses, to very similar tragedies, reveal about who we as Westerners are able and/or willing to empathize with? And what is the cause of our imbalanced ability to empathize? More recently, the attacks in Beirut, Lebanon, which resulted in the reported deaths of 47 people, received a significantly smaller amount of attention than the attacks in Paris as well.
If we are unwilling to interrogate and expand our own empathic capacities, than those in power who clearly have stunted empathic capacities will continue to exploit, subjugate, and domineer. This said, even while critiquing those who are blatantly misusing their power, it is critical that everyone remain vigilant in holding themselves accountable and avoid seeking out scapegoats to assuage feelings of guilt.
Of course, a lack of empathy doesn’t completely explain Western citizens’ responses to this most recent wave of extremist violence, however, it is of utmost importance to expand our empathic capacities as people across the globe are being facing extremists violence in the face of broader injustices.
On August 27, 2015, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser publicly unveiled her plan to reduce violent crime in a press conference at the shuttered Malcolm X Elementary School in Ward 8. The rate of homicides within the District has been on the rise. To counter it, Mayor Bowser has proposed a series of initiatives with a focus on cracking down on crime and enhancing police authority. Highlights of the speech can be found in the video shot and edited by Joshua Rose Schmidt below.
Her plan may sound reasonable to many who legitimately fear the rise in violent crime, but it did little to assuage those who have every reason to fear the police. Bowser claims that her plan will make Black Lives Matter more than just a hashtag. What the mayor fails to recognize is that Black Lives Matter is in fact a movement that recognizes that police misconduct and brutality are ongoing, systemic problems whose history begins long before the advent of the cell phone video. Those within the movement believe that doubling down on techniques that have failed in the past will not solve the problem now. Black Lives Matter activist and founder of the Stop Police Terror Project, Eugene Puryear has a plan that should be considered by the mayor and anyone who wants to see an end to murders committed by the police and murders committed by citizens.
On Wednesday June 3, 2015, at 7:30 p.m., the work of slain Capital Community News Reporter Charnice Milton will be commemorated by a silent vigil outside of the Washington Seniors Wellness Center located at 3001 Alabama Ave., SE.
Participants in Wednesday’s event will gather in concentric circles around copies of the Hill Rag and East of the River newspapers containing Charnice’s contributions. They will join hands and stand in silence for 20 minutes to reflect on the meaning of her work.
Attendees are asked to arrive by 7:15 p.m. Ushers will be available to guide them to assigned places.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 @ 7:15 PM Washington Seniors Wellness Center 3001 Alabama Avenue, SE
For further information or to volunteer, contact Maceo Thomas at maceothomas@gmail.com
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PLEASE NOTE:
Messages of condolences can be sent to:
Family of Charnice Milton
c/o
Living Word Church
4101 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20032
And you can go to this link to learn more information about the public funeral services: