Photo by cmoaknd

Photo by cmoaknd

A Senate committee will hold a hearing on a D.C. statehood bill for the first time in 20 years today. While this is a major visibility boost for the movement, the bill is unlikely to go anywhere, as the Post was kind enough to point out.

The story is less cynical than the tweet, but the message is still the same: Today’s statehood hearing is just another “exercise” in what may ultimately be a futile fight. But statehood activist Josh Burch frames the hearing a different way: Another important part of a long process.

“We have a long way to go but this is a significant and historic step forward,” Burch, who runs Neighbors United for Statehood, said in a release today. Here’s part of his testimony:

As much as this bill is about our nation’s founding, the Constitution, and democracy it is fundamentally about people. It’s about 646,000+ people who fulfill all obligations of citizenship. It’s about my family and our neighbors. This bill is our bill. This bill is our entry pass into American democracy and I urge you to support it. As a lifelong citizen of the District of Columbia this is the only bill that will make me an equal American citizen. As a father this is the only bill that will give my children what they rightly deserve: equality.

Via Pop Vox.

Burch has urged D.C. residents to take the afternoon off and attend the 3 p.m. hearing, which will be streamed here. Indeed, with an overwhelming majority of Americans opposed to equality for D.C.’s residents — “not only no, but HELL NO!” — it will take a concentrated push by the people who live here to achieve statehood.

Naturally, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is also taking a positive approach to today’s hearing, viewing it as an educational opportunity.

Our residents are grateful for today’s hearing even though they doubt statehood will come tomorrow. The considerable appreciation in the District for this hearing comes because residents know that a hearing is a significant and necessary step in putting an issue on the congressional agenda. Your hearing is the most important vehicle afforded by Congress to educate Members and the public and to signal that the matter constitutes a serious national concern that should move to passage. At the same time, the city’s elected officials and residents are well aware that your willingness to hold a hearing carries a reciprocal responsibility for all of us who live in the District to continue to build support for the bill in Congress and with the public. We need friends in the Senate and House, but residents learned many lessons from their experience in achieving home rule just 40 years ago. Although Democrats were in power for most of the 100 years after Congress eliminated D.C.’s limited home rule after Reconstruction, home rule did not return until there was collective action from residents. For that reason, I particularly appreciate the rapidly growing number of D.C. statehood activists and their help in gathering cosponsors for the bill.

And while it may not happen, the D.C. Council is at least demanding the Senate take a vote before the midterm elections: “If we are not to have voting rights, we at least deserve to know who opposes our inalienable right.”

Filed Under: 51st state, statehood now,