A lot of people who don’t live in Washington, D.C., have opinions against statehood. As someone who grew up in Richmond, but now has been a resident of the District of Columbia for more than a decade, I have some thoughts to share. A lot of the arguments seem to center around potentially upsetting the power balance in the U.S. Congress and the District’s population being too small to justify a state. Also that the District should be returned to Maryland, such as the city of Alexandria and Arlington County’s retrocession to Virginia prior to the Civil War. If we follow this logic — then should Wyoming be “given” to Montana, North Dakota to South Dakota or Rhode Island to Connecticut? These arguments are illogical and mostly purported by persons who don’t want to see that status quo change.
Richmond Times Dispatch Letter: District statehood cannot be ignored