Change of the Seasons #3

Winter has been threatening this week. We had several cold days with bits of snow in the area melting before they hit the ground. A little while ago we actually had a flake. During the past week, DC government emailed to residents it snow plan for this winter. City trucks have had snow plows attached and some have had the salt spreaders loaded in their beds. Last night, one of the spreaders going down the street was actually filled with salt/chemical.

From Places

The ice skating rink in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden has opened for winter season.

One day when I was out and about, I observed a new process. At the Department of Justice Constitution Street entrance, security guards were checking the ID’s of people intending to enter the building on the sidewalk outside the building. In addition, persons were showing their driver’s license along with their official government IDs. . . I wonder if Justice is trying to keep the “transition team” out. . . During the Bush administration, the location of the Department of Justice on Constitution Street has been transformed from symbolic of justice to irony.

Just like all Americans, residents of Washington, DC: · pay federal and local taxes; · serve in the armed forces and make sacrifices in times of war and conflict; · serve on juries to uphold federal laws and policies.

Last week, the lights were strung on the White House Christmas tree. This week, the ornaments are being added.

From Places

The population of the District of Columbia is larger than Wyoming and less than 100,000 people smaller than Alaska. Last week, I suggested that I might stakeout the corner of 6th & E Streets NW to see if there is any traffic between AARP and the Obama Presidential Transition offices. One of my AARP friends wrote that it was not necessary: “I can assure you that there’s foot traffic between AARP and the transitional offices. We, as you know, want to work closely with ANY administration – especially this one – because there’s so very much that needs to be done, as you know!!” DC residents are denied voting representation in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives, and do not have complete autonomy over their own budget and local laws. Congress has the final say on DC's budget and laws. The Washington Post reports: District and federal officials are preparing for as many as 4 million people for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, a crowd that would be three or four times larger than previous big events on the Mall. (Note: the U.S. Park Service has reported those estimates are too high and suggested no more than 2 million). Only a fraction of those people will be close enough to get a good look at the action. But officials are planning extra JumboTrons at the Mall and along the inaugural parade route so that spectators can feel a part of the historic day. Officials are talking about opening large sections of the Mall east of the Washington Monument, a space normally used for staging the many components of the inaugural parade, Fenty said. That would make the Mall a viewing area that experts said could accommodate several million people -- significantly more than in the past. Officials have not said where the parade groups will gather instead. When was the largest inaugural crowd? The biggest inaugural crowd appears to be the 1.2 million people who are said to have attended events at the 1965 inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson, according to police and past news accounts. In those days, the swearing-in was held in the more limited area around the east front of the Capitol, where it had taken place since 1829, according to Beth Hahn of the Senate Historical Office.

Whose inauguration was the first to be held on the Capitol's west front?

It was not until the 1981 inauguration of Ronald Reagan that the swearing-in was moved to the Capitol's west front, where larger audiences could spread onto the Mall.

Meanwhile, the construction of the White House parade reviewing stand continued.

DC elects a Delegate to the House of Representatives who can vote in committee and draft legislation, but does not have full voting rights. However, Congress is considering legislation that will grant DC's Delegate full voting rights.

Jeanette Takamura, Dean of the Columbia University School of Social Work, has joined the Obama transition team. The former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging in the Clinton administration has responsibility for the transition team review of the Administration on Aging. DID YOU KNOW

That the District of Columbia is the only national capital among democratic nations of the world whose citizens have no voting representation in the national legislature?

That the residents of the District of Columbia are the only Americans who are federally taxed without voting representation in the Federal Government?

That District residents pay more federal income taxes per capita than the residents of all but one state? That more District residents, per capita, have fought in U.S. wars than the residents of any state, even though they have no vote in the U.S. Congress which declares those wars? That the District of Columbia is the only jurisdiction in the United States that cannot spend any of its own local tax dollars without specific approval from the U.S. Congress in which District residents have no voting representation?

For most of the nation, the license tags on the Presidential limousine are not important. But for DC residents, the tags are of great symbolic importance. At the end of the Clinton administration, the limousine wore with pride the standard District of Columbia license tag with the slogan "Taxation Without Representation". President Bush immediately replaced these tags with slogan-free tags.