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Thank you to Mark E.P. Roberts for demonstrating so convincingly why some of us choose to live in the District, believe in its vitality, and could never bring ourselves to be of the weaker suburbanite category of poseur D.C. dwellers (“My D.C.,” 9/19).
He skillfully outlines the contradictions of District problems with the near-incentives that keep Virginians and Marylanders perpetually abusing D.C. services, while, in many cases, working professionally as a servants
to democracy.
Having only been a D.C. resident for a year, I have found myself defending my D.C. living while scrutinizing friends and associates who live outside the District. One of my biggest pet peeves is when Maryland and Virginia suburbanites casually say they live in “Washington.” Living in D.C. is a testament of courage that only those of us who’ve endured living here can truly proclaim. The others have taken the easy way out and are further aggravating the nationwide neglect of this country’s capital. If the people who work in D.C. don’t care about it, who will?
D.C. is not some problem that can be sidestepped forever. It shouldn’t take a Reston resident less time to drive into the District than it does for a Capitol Hill resident to get to Dupont Circle. The problem won’t get any better until people stop living a life of convenience and start facing the music in the nation’s capital.
Those of us who choose to live here do believe D.C. is a city worth living in, but we also know that the challenges won’t diminish when the people who work all day long bettering our nation forget the obvious and cross the border to go home at night.
Capitol Hill
via the Internet