This guy must be channelling his inner Bob Dylan…I feel like I’m listening to his clone!

Very nice, feelgood song. Video is beautiful.

After reading your article I am left with the feeling that there is more to this topic than I originally thought….

I must have somehow missed it! Guess I should do some other research before coming to a conclusion….

In the past, under a hostile Republican administration with a Republican Congress, there may have been some logic to a piecemeal “go slow” approach. Now, though, we have elected a Democratic President and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress. We want to be full American citizens, with full representation in Congress AND full control over our local and state government. Statehood for the District is the simplest way to accomplish this as it only requires approval by a simple majority vote of each House of Congress.

Article I of the Constitution only requires that “the Seat of the Government of the United States” be a “District (not exceeding ten Miles square).” In 1846, what is now the City of Alexandria and the Arlington County were given back to Virginia and those District residents regained their full political rights. The District residents living on the north side of the Potomac have continued to be denied these rights. In 1973, Congress defined a “National Capital Service Area” in section 739 of Public Law 93-198, the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, otherwise known as the Home Rule Act. This area meets the requirements of Article I as it includes the essential parts of the three branches of the Federal Government – the White House and most downtown Federal Departments and offices, the Capitol and its office buildings, the Supreme Court and the Mall.

Unlike the various attempts that have been made over the past 35 years to get District residents “voting rights” in Congress, statehood can’t be undone or limited and does not require multiple pieces of legislation and/or amending the Constitution. Statehood is the constitutionally approved way to grant full self-government to American citizens occupying a defined territory of defined boundaries (which are already defined in the constitution for the state of New Columbia which was sent to Congress). In addition, adopting a piecemeal strategy means Congress has to approve each incremental increase in our rights separately – first a vote for a representative in the House, then to have representation in the Senate, then for each little bit of autonomy in running our local affairs, each of which requires immense effort. And, as we have seen with home rule, unless it is done by a constitutional amendment (which then requires a two-thirds vote of Congress and of the states), what Congress gives, Congress can take away. With statehood, we can wage a single campaign to get full democracy AND full representation in Congress that can’t be taken away from us.

I’m not going to pretend I understand this difficult moment you are facing. It’s clear reading your post that every one has a different response to that often hushed reality of immortality.
Due to unfortunate events in my life, the question of our fate was made real early in my life. As I look back on those difficult and emotional moments, I truly feel a sense of being lucky. Those trying situations made me realize that yes, I am going to die, but that fact alone made me lucky because that meant I actually got to experience this wondrous, mysterious and curious thing called life.
To me, in the words of Mervyn Peake, “To live at all is miracle enough”.
Keep posting and letting us know how you are fairing. I wish you the best!
DGTL

Although hackneyed and cliched — keep positive. Think of those things you want to do with the people you love: the twins’ graduations, weddings, grandkids, anniversaries…just keeping thinking to the future.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Todd aka General Tso

As I said, I blogged extensively about this at the time. And aside from the larger political issues, Michael Schiavo was a really evil human being.

He was possibly responsible for putting his wife in a coma in the first place, and his refusal to get her proper care early on arguably doomed her. He had her pets put to sleep, had her jewelry melted down to make a new ring for himself, and took up with another woman and had two kids by her while supposedly “caring” for his wife.

He was a despicable human being, and it boggles my mind that he got one iota of public sympathy, or that his side of the issue won in the court of public opinion.

That case really shook my faith in the American people.