I was glad to see there will be a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives this month on granting statehood to Washington, D.C., where I was born. Statehood for D.C. is necessary to grant equal rights to the Americans who live there and face taxation without representation.
D.C. residents pay the highest federal taxes per capita, but they have no senators or representatives in Congress. This issue is glaring in the U.S. Senate, where states like ours (93% white) or Vermont (624,000 people, 94% white) are represented, but D.C. (712,000 people, 54% people of color) is not. The Jan. 6 riots highlighted this injustice, as many D.C. police officers and Capitol Police officers put their lives at risk to defend a legislative body where they have no one speaking for them.