While President Trump was in Maine last week highlighting our state’s contribution to the battle against COVID-19, our federal government ordered troops to wage a different war in our nation’s capital. Prior to his visit here, I, like many friends and neighbors, watched in shock as an American president ordered the use of tear gas to clear peaceful protesters so he could have a photo-op in front of a church.

The House is set on Friday to do something for which Washington’s sole nonvoting delegate in Congress has pushed for decades: pass legislation that would admit the District of Columbia as the nation’s 51st state.

This Friday the House will likely pass a bill to make the District of Columbia a state, the first time such a bill will pass either house of Congress. It’s about time. And if anyone charges that Democrats want statehood only for partisan reasons, they should reply: So what?

Before moving to Tucson, I was a disenfranchised voter. I lived in Washington, D.C., with over 700,000 other citizens, none of whom had voting representation in Congress and all of whom paid federal taxes. This ongoing, absurd condition is inscribed with despairing resignation on the D.C. license plate: Taxation Without Representation.