ON TAKING BACK OUR NATION’S CAPITOL

Washington DC is a blight on our nation; a master class in governmental mismanagement and crime infestation.  It is a victim of political corruption, failing schools and high crime at the local level; congressional ineptness at the national level; and indifference by the White House.  That may finally be changing.  We will learn more when President Trump reveals his plans for the District Monday.

The catalyst for change is being fueled by a high crime statistic accelerant.  The bulk of the District’s population lives within ten square miles of Washington’s 68 square mile girth.  Nearly 50-percent of the population is Black.  Politically, it is a majority/minority city.  It’s school system is failing.  Nearly 85% of Black students cannot read at grade level.  Latino students are close behind at 80%.  More than 6% of the Districts nearly 700,000 residents are unemployed.  And more than 14% live below the poverty level.  The District had the highest violent crime rate in the nation in 2023.  It has declined since, but only slightly.  Carjackings remain at record levels.  And memories linger of the 2020 BLM riots that saw historic statues defaced or pulled down, federal buildings vandalized, a historic church set afire, and dozens of overwhelmed police and national guardsmen injured by out of control mobs.  I feel certain this was not something our founding fathers envisioned for the tract of land they set aside in 1790 on which Washington DC would rise.

As an American, I am appalled by the crime statistics, the poverty level, the incidence of juvenile crime.  Worse, I am now hesitant to visit there.  We can lay blame at the feet of the District’s 13 elected city council members and the mayor who were empowered under the 1973 Home Rule Act.  But the greater blame lies with congress which has abandoned it responsibilities since home rule was approved.  The result is a city council and mayor more concerned with securing political power than the wellbeing of its residents.  Example: in 2023 the Democrat-controlled city council passed a measure to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections which plumped Democrat votes. 

It is the Congress in whom our founding fathers invested control of the nation’s capitol.  And like bad parents who do not want to deal with a wayward child, it simply throws money at the problem.  As the problem grew, so did taxpayer funding.  Two Republican senators have introduced a bill to abolish home rule for the District.  It should be foremost on the congressional agenda when the senate and house return to work in September.

Washington DC belongs to the nation, to every American citizen.  As citizens, we should demand Congress revoke the 1973 Home Rule Act, divest the nation’s capitol of its locally controlled government and follow the guidance of the founding fathers who invested oversight of the capitol in the Congress which represents all Americans regardless of political strip.  I hope President Trump has a workable plan to make the streets of Washington DC safer, to provide better schools for its children and fuller employment and opportunity for its residents.  And that Congress will enact legislation to restore our capitol as the pride of America.