Martin Luther King

In a Washington Post article, dated March 30, 2007, headlines read, “Fenty Tries to Sway Key Bush Aide.” The article went on to say that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty met with White House Chief of Staff, Joshua Bolten, for 45 minutes yesterday but made little progress in the city’s push for full voting rights in the House of Representatives. White House officials said recently that they would advise President Bush to veto a bill in the House if the legislation passed Congress. The article ended by Mr. Fenty stating, “I think it was a very constructive meeting, but there were not any commitments made by the White House.” Mr. Bush said earlier in the week that if such a bill were passed he would veto it because it was unconditional.

The White House’s tone is not one that is unfamiliar in America. There have been many times when what was right was denied based on what is and is not constitutional. Was it ever right for women and people of color to be denied the right to vote and participate fully in this country’s democracy? It happened and it was upheld as constitutional because the framers of the Constitution had not the foresight to see the value of every human being because they were operating within the framework of their time. They were however, men of great vision because they did have the foresight to understand that as the world changed, such a great document would be useless without the flexibility to change. We therefore, thank the framers for “Constitutional Amendments.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “A right delayed is a right denied” and that “The time is always right to do what is right.” The Johnson White House could have left the signing of the Voting Rights Act to another White House, but the time was right to do what was right. Many White Houses will come and go, but few occupants of that House will leave a legacy of doing what is right. Dr. King also said that, “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” So it doesn’t matter whether this White House or the next one or the one after decides that the time is right to do what is right for the tax paying citizens of the District of Columbia, they will not leave the struggle until victory is won. Finite disappointments are unavoidable, but finite hope is what drives struggles into realities.

It is so prophetic in the District’s fight for full representation that we must sit quietly and hear Dr. King’s voice when he said; “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Can’t you hear him say, “Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail”. It is as if Dr. King wrote these words because somehow prophetically he knew that the District of Columbia had a fierce battle to fight because it is a part of the American struggle to overcome its selfishness, to overcome its greed and to walk out of darkness into the light of justice and full equality for all of its citizens.

Dr. King had a dream and the citizens of the District of Columbia have a dream that one-day they will be able to stand up and be counted as true American citizens with all the rights and liberties espoused in “We the people …”

The tragedy and sadness that befalls us as this White House prepares to veto not just a bill but also the rights of American citizens. Let not the hand of blame fall too heavily on the White House for this is a national disgrace. Let the hand be felt by every citizen in America because this is an American injustice, an American inequality that should be frowned upon and not tolerated by a loud echoing of the collective voices of citizens all across this country. When there is injustice doled out for part of the nation, there is injustice for the whole. Dr. King summed it up best for the District’s citizens and their fight for equal representation when he said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”