As Christians, we are heirs to a noble tradition of liberty, justice, and equity stretching back thousands of years of Judeo-Christian history. From Moses leading the Children of Israel out of the bondage of slavery into liberty in the Promised Land, to Jesus leading all the Children of God out of the bondage of the slavery of sin, into the liberty of love and forgiveness, ours has been a holy tradition of freedom.

No less has been our tradition of democracy. The Hebrew scriptures present a code of law which emphasizes equity and justice. We are told that even the mighty King David ruled only because of God's grace and because it was acceptable to the people. When that monarchy failed to be responsive to the people under his son, Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was rent in two. A thousand years later, Jesus preached that all people were worthy of the love of God, that priests and tax collectors, princes and harlots were all equal before God.

It was with this very spirit, more than 1700 years later, that our Founding Fathers wrote that the democracy and liberty they sought to establish derived from rights that were "ordained by their Creator" equating the will of God with the protection of individual liberties and the provision of democratic rights. This has been the spirit which moved the great Protestant reformers, including Methodism's founder John Wesley, who championed the rights of the common people. This spirit was with those in the 1960s who marched in the South and upon Washington to champion the cause of civil rights in America. There can be no doubt that our faith calls us toward freedom and democracy.

But why does democracy matter?

Why is it so important and why does the Foundry Democracy Project believe that the provision of democratic rights to the citizens of the District of Columbia is so crucial?

Democracy is not an abstract political theory or a fashionable philosophy. It is a system of government. It is a system wherein the greatest possibilities for justice are realized. Only with democracy can the voices of all be heard. Only with democracy can the weak truly be protected from the oppression of the strong. Only with democracy can intellectual, religious, and personal freedom truly be protected. Democracy is not a way of thinking - it is a way of living, and of living justly, the way we are commanded to by our faith.

One need only look at those places where democracy does not exist to see why it is necessary. The injustices of a lack of democracy are apparent in the capital city of the greatest democracy the world has ever known: Washington, D.C.

Taxation without representation

More than two hundred and twenty years ago, the Founding Fathers waged a war of independence in the name of representation. A three-percent sales tax on certain goods had been levied on the American colonists. They were unrepresented in the Parliament that imposed that tax; they felt the levy was unjust and failing to secure representation, they rebelled and formed a new nation. Two hundred and twenty years later, half a million people, the residents of the capital of that nation born in freedom, pay taxes upwards of 30% in taxes and yet have no voting representation in the Congress. District residents pay a total of 37.6% of their incomes in Federal and District taxes. This places the District in 3rd place behind Connecticut (39.3%), New York (39.2%), and tied with New Jersey (37.6%). The national average is 34.4%. 1 In their "taxation without representation", the residents of the District of Columbia are alone among Americans.

"Congress shall have Power... To declare War..."

Under our Constitutional system, it is the Congress, not the President, who declares wars. This provision is meant to protect against the abuses of power and ego that led European monarchies to ruin, as kings waged war to satisfy their own personal ambitions at the expense of the lives of their subjects. Even though the District of Columbia has no voice in Congress, it sends its sons and daughters off to war in the service of their country. Proportionately, more District residents have fought in U.S. wars than the residents of any state - although its people have never been given a voice in deciding whether to wage war. Since the American Revolution, District residents have served in all U.S. wars, most notably in Vietnam, where the number of resident casualties per capita exceeded that of 47 states. The District sent more soldiers to the Persian Gulf war than 20 states, and more per capita than all but four. 2

Local autonomy

Residents of D.C. are not only left out of questions of national policy, they are left out of the decisions that govern their own city, their own neighborhoods, their own lives. Often, Congress views the District of Columbia as its laboratory, where it can implement economic, social and criminal justice policies whether or not the residents of the District want them. In addition, the United States Government, embassies, and the numerous tax-exempt organizations occupy nearly 50% of the land in the District of Columbia. None of that land is taxable, and the organizations so exempted pay neither income nor property taxes to the District Government.

Owing in large measure to the fact that suburban Maryland and northern Virginia do have Congressional delegations, the District of Columbia is the only U.S. jurisdiction prohibited by Congressional statute from taxing income earned by non-residents. More than two-thirds of all the money earned in the District of Columbia every day, $22 billion a year, crosses the border at night never to provide any revenue for the District. No other city in the United States is hindered this way. Connecticut residents working in New York must pay a city Income tax. New Jersey residents who work in Philadelphia may be taxed by Pennsylvania. Only the District is prevented from doing likewise - a direct result of a lack of representation in the Congress. Representatives from Maryland and Virginia understandably protect their states' interests--it was for this reason they were elected. However, the District, represented only by a non-voting delegate, cannot effectively lobby to protect its interests should they conflict with the interests of its neighbors.

In recent months, elected officials have seen their power diminish, in some cases down to near irrelevance, while the power of un-elected, appointed federal officials is on the increase. The people of Washington are being removed ever farther from those who make the decisions that affect their day to day lives.

Each of these above mentioned situations is more egregious than the conditions that led our Founders toward independence. If their 3% taxation without representation was tyranny, then the District's 37.6% taxation without representation is Orwellian in comparison. If the colonists objected to the quartering of troops, and to conscription, how must then our 200 year legacy of military service without political consent appear?

It is clear that there is injustice in the District of Columbia. It is just as clear that these injustices are the direct result of a lack of democratic rights for the people of Washington. What then prevents the provision of these rights when the situation seems so clear cut?

There are a number of myths surrounding the District that often work to justify the lack of political rights.

Rich and Poor

The first myth is that Washington, D.C. is a poor city. It is felt that the city is a constant drain of funds and social services, one that is best managed as federal emergency relief is managed rather than governed democratically. Where does this belief come from? Likely it arises from the fact that the District is 70% Black. Most Americans have preconceptions of the Black community based on what they perceive of inner cities or small southern towns where poverty in the Black community is high. To be sure, there is a high proportion of social needs in the Black community, both in Washington and throughout the country. But to many Americans, the District is one huge inner city. This is not the case.

The District is also a wealthy place. Per capita income in the District of Columbia was $31,136 in 1993 compared to $21,809 for the United States. 3 That is higher than the per capita income of Maryland and Virginia. It is not the 30% of the population who are white who have the wealth. Washington, D.C. is home to one of the largest Black middle class per capita populations in the United States. Professionals of every category can be found in Black Washington. The District is an example of hope and encouragement for Black America, and should not be an object of scorn. Black America, long in danger of becoming a permanent economic underclass, can find hope and a model in the success of the Black middle class of the District.

Unmanageability

The second misconception is that District residents are incapable of self-management. It is hard to deny that there has been gross mismanagement, cronyism, and political maneuvering that have caused the District great difficulty fiscally. The embarrassment of having a Control Board appointed is testimony to that. However, it should be borne in mind that no other city in the United States is without a State above it. No other city has to pay for its own Medicare, prison system, state university, department of motor vehicles, and highways. In every other city in the Union, those responsibilities are shouldered by the States. Washington, D.C. has no state. In recent months, the federal government has relieved the city of much of this burden and Washington is again on the road to fiscal stability.

Not ready for democracy

The last such argument is that the people of Washington are incapable of self-government or are not ready for full democracy. This is perhaps the most insulting and patronizing of all the myths and beliefs surrounding Washington. It is also decidedly un-democratic and un-American. When President Jiang of China was in Washington, he attended a Capitol Hill breakfast. In response to queries from the members of Congress he stated that the people of China were not ready for democracy at present, and that it was more important to focus on fiscal and financial stability than democratic rights. This answer did not sit well with Congress and they objected strenuously to this. Yet, it is the very argument that Congress itself uses when discussing the District of Columbia. Time and time again has the fiscal condition of the District been offered as proof as to why Washingtonians are not ready for democracy. Even the most cursory examination of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States indicates that there is no economic price tag on achieving democracy. It is a right, endowed by our Creator, and not one which has to be earned with sound economic policy.

It is 2004. Nearly four thousand years since the Exodus--2000 years since Jesus of Nazareth walked the Earth. At this point in history, newly freed populations in Russia are voting for representatives in the Duma; factory workers in what was East Berlin are voting for representatives to the Bundestag; blacks in South Africa are voting for candidates for the legislature; Palestinians are electing members of the Palestinian Authority; and the Children of Israel, after 2000 years of exile and persecution, are once again in control of their destinies and voting for members of the Knesset in Jerusalem. The people of the capital cities of every other democracy have full voting rights. The world-wide march toward democracy and freedom has resulted in unprecedented millions of people taking responsibility for their lives and for the decisions that affect them. The time has come for the citizens of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the nation that inspired this global spread of democracy, to receive their full measure of political rights and achieve true equality with all other Americans.

Our sense of history, our belief in democracy, our desire for freedom, and most importantly, our faith demands it.


Notes

1 Source: Tax Foundation. Figures reflect 1995 data.

2 The Plain dealer, Dec. 7, 1993.

3 CQ Researcher, Vol. 6, No. 44, Nov. 22, 1996

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The opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and of the Foundry Democracy Project, and are not necessarily those of the congregation, the staff, or the clergy of the Foundry United Methodist Church.