Heroes Star Panettiere For D.C. Statehood

I would like to thank Hayden Panettiere for immediately understanding the gross injustice done to residents of the District of Columbia because of our lack of statehood. The issue is freedom and democracy, not a search for a tax haven. Although several of the previous posters don't know it, the District of Columbia is substantively different from the other American territories. District residents are the only Americans whose predecessors lived in the original thirteen colonies, fought in the American revolution, helped found the union and then lost their right to govern themselves and participate fully in their national government 209 years ago.

I was one of millions of Americans who attended the inaugural events this week, full of pride and hope for my country. As I listened to the speeches and soaring rhetoric Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial and Tuesday at the Capitol, though, my reactions were tinged with melancholy because I am a resident of the District of Columbia, America's last colony.

While listening to people laud the democratic values and history of this country and celebrate the inauguration of our first African-American president, I felt the deep irony that almost 600,000 American citizens living right in the nation's capital are denied the rights that all other Americans have enjoyed for over two centuries. District residents pay more federal taxes per capita than people in most states and disproportionately send more of our citizens to defend this country than most states and yet 144 years after slavery was abolished and 89 years after women received the vote, you can't truthfully say that in the District of Columbia we have a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

I hope President Obama and the new Congress will work to right this wrong by admitting the state of New Columbia to the union. I'm glad Ms. Panettiere is helping tell the rest of America about the need for statehood for D.C.

Ann in DC of DC 9:29PM January 28, 2009