Photo by Ronnie R

Five Years On: On Wednesday we gathered to celebrate DCist’s fifth anniversary, which caused me to reflect on how in those five years I’ve written countless posts and gotten into innumerable arguments with some in the commentariat — all over D.C. voting rights. In the last five years — which, in the grand scheme of 200 years of injustice is nothing — the voting rights movement has had hope and seen defeat, but never really achieved any of its goals. This isn’t to criticize the selfless and noble work of those who advocate on behalf of the District’s enfranchisement more than it is to say that, well, we’re still unrepresented in Congress. Yet the fight continues, and with each passing day comes a new reminder of the ways big and small that our particular injustice is rubbed in. Maybe it will take another five years before the plight of the District’s residents is remedied. Maybe it’ll take 50. Who knows. But as the city comes alive again after the August break, another cycle of hoping, organizing and advocating begins anew. Let’s just hope that by the time DCist turns 10 or 15, I’m not still writing about how it sucks not to have voting rights.

Legislation Remains a Priority: When legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House failed to move forward over the summer, we assumed that the three-year-old measure was all but dead. After all, a key component of the legislation — an extra seat for Utah — becomes a non-issue in 2010, when the census and congressional re-apportionment will give Utah that seat anyhow. But DC Vote, which has long advocated for the legislation, isn’t giving up hope yet. Instead, they’re planning an October push, including a rally to re-energize voting rights supporters. Of course, skeptics will point out that with health care on the docket and the continuing likelihood that someone will add another amendment gutting the city’s gun laws, the legislation doesn’t face better chances than it did at the start of the year. I hate to say it, but I agree with them.

L’Enfant and Douglass Nowhere to be Found: It takes an act of Congress for pretty much anything to happen in the District. Literally. A statue of Pierre L’Enfant and one of Fredrick Douglass destined for the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall have instead been holed up in a D.C. government building in Judiciary Square because, well, D.C. isn’t a state and has no right to place any statues in the Capitol. The story of the District’s long struggle to even get two statues made isn’t anything new, but today the Post’s John Kelly revisits the issue by asking D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton why she hasn’t been pushing for L’Enfant and Douglass to take their rightful place in Statuary Hall. Priorities, it seems. First voting rights, then statues. Could our second-class status get any more obvious?