OPINION:
When D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared, as reported by the Times, “It’s times like this when America needs to know why your nation’s capital — a place where 700,000 taxpaying Americans live — should be the 51st state,” she demonstrated a complete lack of historical knowledge (“Trump calls D.C. statehood ‘ridiculous,’” Web, Aug. 13).
Here are some facts that might help her. First, two states, Maryland and Virginia, gave up land that was part of their sovereign territory to create Washington. Our states are sovereign in and of themselves and joined to form the federal union known as the United States of America. Granting statehood to a mere city would run counter to the whole concept of democracy as practiced by the Greeks.
Democracy was created to counter the disproportionate power of city states like Athens and Sparta, which had acquired too much political power, to the disadvantage of the rest of the country. Secondly, considering the small size of Washington at only 68 square miles, it is only 5% of the size of Rhode Island, the smallest state, at 1,214 miles. To give it two members of the House and two senators would simply bear out the disproportionality problem that brought about the whole idea of democracy in the first place.
One would think a Democrat would know that this proposal is a contradiction to her party’s whole political philosophy and historical foundation. Based on Ms. Bowser’s rationale, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and other major cities should follow suit and also demand to become states. Where does this lunacy end?
DAVID P. LAMONT
Dunnellon, Florida
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