Michael D. Brown, a D.C. shadow senator on Capitol Hill, has erected a sign in his front yard warning potential city residents they are about to lose some of their political rights.
“I took another step towards making our demand for equality by erecting this sign in my front yard,” he said. “Republicans have contended for years that Washingtonians know what they are getting into when they move to the District of Columbia. I disagree and say: ‘Let’s make that official.’”
Brown, who lives on Western Avenue NW near the D.C.-Maryland border, posted the large sign on his lawn last week.
“As the first house people pass coming from Maryland into D.C. on Massachusetts Avenue, I want this sign to be a warning and a reminder that our disenfranchisement is not an inconvenience, or an oversight, a slight or simple unfairness,” he said. “It’s a violation of our most basic rights of citizenship. … It’s time to stop being polite.”
Brown said a sign like his should be at every entry point to the District and challenged every Washingtonian to express their demand for statehood by posting signs on their windows and in their yards.
Noting that Sen. Thomas Carper’s (D-Del.) statehood bill sits in the Senate, Brown said District residents should withstand the bullying senators by “saying in a loud, clear solitary voice that we will no longer accept the insult and injury of second-class citizenship based on race, issue politics or party affiliation.”
