Why I Started This in DC, the USA National Capital City
Situation
Taxation without Representation. Vulnerable to multiple Federal disruptions to effective self-governance.
Effect
Statements heard multiple times – “Even though we are headquartered in DC, we are a national organization, so we don’t get deeply involved in the local DC community.” “Why should we feel patriotic when the Federal Government and non-DC residents treat us like we are not full citizens”
As a national capital city should, Wash., DC has representation of some of the best the USA as a nation has to offer and some of the worst.
After 30 years of living and working in DC, I can state without hesitation that doing so constantly in the national and international spotlight is far from easy.
January 6, 2021 Attack on The Capitol Building
The Federally-mandated “limited home rule” status authorized for DC self-governance presents dimensions of complexity and stress you have to live under to fully comprehend.
I believe that, by default, residents and workers in Wash., DC are in the role of “frontline caretakers” of the USA National Capital, and I believe that with such comes the duty to work to model the best of USA servant-leadership capabilities.
This would be hard enough under ideal circumstances, but under “Taxation without Representation” and “limited self-governance” those who rise to fulfill this duty prove themselves to be exceptional.
I accept this duty, and that is a primary reason I activated urban Patriot in Wash., DC.
DC is the city the rest of the country uses as shorthand for everything performed and hollow about American life. The marble. The motorcades. The politics. Particularly harsh is the description of DC as a “swamp”.
The diverse crowd at President Obama’s Inauguration.
There are two Washingtons, and most of the country only knows one. There is the federal city, the one on the postcards. And there is the city residents actually live in. Shaw, Anacostia, U Street. Neighborhoods built by families who came north with almost nothing and helped build something that lasted. That DC has been doing the work for over a century. It just never got the monument.
The Bipartisan Presidents and their wives at opening of Obama Presidential Library.
The distance between the patriotism performed on the National Mall and the patriotism practiced only blocks away is clear. If we can elevate the authentic patriotism of local DC residents and workers in the shadow of the loudest performance patriotism in America, we can elevate in every city.
The timing is not an accident either. This is the year the whole country has turned toward this city for America's 250th. There have been fireworks and speeches and a lot of talk about what this country is. I want urban Patriot to be the voice in that crowd connecting the people living and working every day only blocks away. The next 250 years will not be written on the National Mall. They will be written by neighbors who decided their city was worth their time.
Photo of local DC elected officials on 50th Anniversary of DC’s “Home Rule” status.
This is not a fashion line looking for a message. It is a message presented for one of the most effective ways people of the USA communicate who they are and what they are about – in their apparel. I built it for the people I have known my whole life. The ones who were doing the work long before anyone handed them a word for it.