Monday, April 2, 2012

APRIL 2, 2012

Interesting week here in the nation's capital.  First, the baseball season starts.  Historians will remember Washington's first team years ago, the Senators, for whom someone appropriately coined the slogan, "Washington:  first in war, first in peace, last in the American League."  That's not quite accurate;  the old team did win once or twice back in the 1920s.  The new team, called the Nationals, plays in the other league but they have something  in common with the old guys.  In fact they are even more pure about it.  They haven't won anything at all.

 

The other important thing this week is, of course, primary elections in some states.  We have some elections in Washington but they are kind of odd.  I voted this week, for example, for Washington's Delegate to the US House of Representatives.  I said delegate and not congressman for a reason:  congressmen vote.  Our delegate, a charming, intelligent woman, is not allowed to vote.  A non-voting delegate is kind of like a gun without a trigger.  But, hey, that's DC.

 

I voted against a sitting City Council member, Vincent Orange, in favor of a man I know very little about, Sekou Biddle.  The Washington Post liked him but that is probably not enough to change the color of the seat from Orange.

 

Well, that's life in the capital of the world's greatest democracy – non-voting delegates, shadow senators (Lord knows what they do) and a City Council we actually get to elect.

 

Fans of the old Washington baseball team used to comfort themselves with the phrase, "Wait 'til next year."  That won't work in DC politics.  We need something simpler:  democracy.  Lord knows where, when or if we'll get it.  It's not so much "wait 'til next year" as a simpler:  Huh?   

 

Washington: first in war, first in peace, last in democracy.


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