September 19, 2002
Warsaw, Poland

 

Regarding the Matter of the Continuing Denial of

Universal and Equal Suffrage

to the People of Washington, DC

 

Mr. Moderator, distinguished ambassadors and delegates,

 

I come before you one last time to ask for your support for Democracy First’s recommendation calling on the United States government to pass a constitutional amendment or such other legislation as may be necessary to bring its domestic legislation into compliance with its OSCE obligations and international law.

 

I also wish to address issues raised yesterday by the distinguished US delegation in regards to this matter.

 

While the US delegation offered to “clarify elements” about the political status of the people of the capital city in order to “avoid confusion” about the “complex procedures” that may be involved in this matter, the government noted in its right of reply that the people of Washington, DC, through the DC Delegate, have “a voice” in the US House of Representatives.

 

Significantly, what the US representative failed to mention is that, though the people of Washington, DC have a single delegate to the House of Representative, that delegate has NO VOTE in the House of Representatives. That delegate is a NON-VOTING delegate.

 

Is the US delegation offering the OSCE a novel definition of what constitutes equal democratic election standards for all adult citizens? Is a Voice, but not a Vote-- in one-half of the national legislature only—the gold standard for equal suffrage and equality before the law? Indeed, the implication of the US statement is that a Voice in national government now occupies the same political space and carries the identical political weight as that of a genuine Vote.

 

For the sake of clarity, this must be said: A Voice is a Voice and a Vote is a Vote and never the twain shall meet in the fields of democratic equivalency.

 

For 200 years the people of Washington, DC have never once been permitted to cast a single vote on any bill that has ever come before the US Congress for consideration. From the enactment of a voting rights bill for African Americans in 1965, to the passage of a constitutional amendment to guarantee equal suffrage for woman in 1920, to decisions on war and peace throughout all of American history, the people of Washington, DC have simply been ignored, not once permitted to say Yea or Nay on the floor of the US Congress through their duly elected representatives.

 

Lastly, I cannot leave today without recalling the sacrifices over 4,000 men and women of Washington, DC have made in the struggle for global democracy. Indeed, there exists a marble monument under a grove of high trees in Washington, DC where you will find, if you look, the names of the honored dead. These men and women sacrificed their lives for the protection of democracy in America and for the preservation of democracy in Europe. They gave their lives so that the people of France, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom could live in a new age of democracies—the one that we see here today.

 

Yet, ironically, when those who survived the European conflicts returned home to America’s capital, they came back not to a democracy-- but to the same old tyranny that remains there today—a tyranny based on the denial of the right to vote in our own national legislature. 

 

This is why we have come back to Europe again—to ask you, to implore you to help us win our full democratic rights, as we once helped you win yours.

 

Thank you.