'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Why I'm glad we left Washington DC

Bill--"the spouse"--and I moved our family home to Charlottesville, in central Virginia, from Washington DC back in 1997. It was a bit of a wrench. I was in my mid-40s and not really relishing the prospect of doing all those "newcomer in the community" things. On the other hand, I was feeling increasingly alienated from DC, which is a strange, fairly rootless, and highly segregated city...

Anyway, almost immediately I found I loved living here. One big discovery--I kid you not!--was enfranchisement.

Living in DC, you see, a person has no voting representation in the US Senate or House of Representatives. Hard to believe, I know. US leaders do, after all, routinely prance (or fight) their way around the world declaiming the virtues of one-person-one-vote democracy. But if you actually live in the capital city of this so-called "democracy" you don't get a vote.

Which means that discussions of national politics held in the salons of the DC neighborhood of Georgetown or whatever all have a highly rarefied tone. Kay Graham (in her day) or Pamela Harriman or other grandes dames of the Georgetown scene may all have a huge effect on national politics by virtue of who they know, whom they can fund-raise for, etc. But they only get to actually be represented in the Senate or Congress by virtue of whatever residence they can establish in out-of-DC vacation spots in Colorado or wherever.

And those of us poor slobs who never had vacation homes? Fuggedabout it. No representation (but plenty of taxation.)

Well, so that was a refreshing change. We came here, and suddenly we get to vote and help organize for Congressional and Senate candidates; and we have a lively and progressive local politics, and a great Delegate in the Virginia legislature (Mitch Van Yahres).

But there are a lot of other reasons it's a good community to live in, too. One is the city school system, from which our daughter Lorna graduated last summer. We have great community theater, live music, bookstores, and restaurants. And then more recently, yesterday and today, I got to take part in two other community-level events which made me glad I live here.

Yesterday, as part of the weekend-long Virginia Film Festival--held here in C'ville--I was part of a panel discussion that was held following a showing of the great David Russell movie, "Three Kings".

We even made the front page of today's local paper! Read all about it here.

Then today, I got to take part, a little vicariously, in the annual conference of an organization I've long supported called Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Vicariously, because I was actually one of the four women from the C'ville Center for Peace and Justice who put on the lunch for the conference. The leader of our team, Virginia Rovnyak, was stunningly well-organized; and she, the other team members and I enjoyed working together while with one ear we also listened to the goings-on in the main room.

I did have a fleeting thought or two along the lines of, Why is it that some tasks seem to end up so gendered even in so-called "progressive" organizations? But by and large I was really happy to be able to help out. Virginia (the state) has a shocking record as a death-penalty state, and it looks like an extremely "long, hard slog" to be able to change that...

I guess there are a number of reasons so many interesting things end up happening in C'ville. One is that we have the University of Virginia here. Another is that the city is fairly central for the whole state, so a number of state-wide events end up being held here rather than in the state capital, Richmond.

Elsewhere in the city today, a gay-rights group was holding a conference. And for sports afficianados, there was even a big U.Va. football game.

Bill's out of town this weekend. But I'll be plenty busy. There's a memorial service tomorrow, sadly, for my friend Rosemary Johnson, who died on Wednesday. And tonight there's a pre-Halloween party to go to.

I'm not sure I'm quite in the mood. But on the other hand, it seems like a really important time to be with friends.