I don't live in Montana.
I'm not one of Jon Tester's constituents.
Yet he and our favorite kids-on-lawn-yeller John McCain think they know what's best for my city.
Two U.S. senators plan to introduce legislation Tuesday that would repeal most of the District's gun laws and restrict the D.C. Council from regulating firearms.
The bill comes one week after District officials dropped efforts to secure a voting member in the House because of similar pro-gun language attached to the voting rights legislation.
Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), the bill's sponsors, say the measure is intended to ensure that the District has complied with a 2008 landmark Supreme Court decision.
That's right, Montanans: Your Senator is now intimately involved in the tyrannical usurpation of the basic civil rights of DC residents.
What quality does Jon Tester think we in DC lack that we're deemed unworthy of the most basic of civil rights: the right to representation in government, and the right to make our own laws?
Would he tell me? Would he tell me to my face why he doesn't think I deserve full citizenship - why he doesn't think the people of my city are capable of self-governance?
Would Montanans call Tester's office and ask, and then tell me why he thinks I and 600,000 other taxpaying Americans should be second-class citizens?
There is no political reason for Tester to do this. Does he think it's going to win him votes back home? Does it do any good for the people of Montana? Does it make them any more free, any more prosperous, any more healthy, any more secure?
If you live in Montana, your progressive values and your American values demand that you call Jon Tester's office and tell him that unless he drops his sponsorship of this insult to 600,000 American citizens, he can't count on your support when he comes up for reelection in 2012. Unless he sees that there are consequences for violating the basic civil rights of DC residents, he's going to keep on doing it.
But this is part of a bigger issue, of course; it goes beyond one Senator, to our whole Congress. The issue is the fact that in this day and age, almost 220 years after the District's founding, its citizens still do not have the benefits of citizenship.
We pay just as much in federal income tax as those from the 50 enfranchised states, and yet we do not have the representation in both houses of Congress to which we're entitled as American citizens.
Our existence precedes that of 36 states, and yet each and every one of our laws is subject to the approval, and unconditional veto, of a Congress that is completely unaccountable to us.
If you call yourself a progressive, this should be an unacceptable state of affairs for you. Hell, if you call yourself an American, this should be an unacceptable state of affairs for you.
The onus is on you to change it. We in DC don't have the political power to do anything about this. That's what being disenfranchised is.
Call your Representative and Senators, and tell them to take action on full statehood for DC now. Tell them that if they don't support DC, you won't support them. And mean it.
But especially if you live in Montana, you've got a phone call to make. You've got a local office to visit and protest. If you're a Montana resident, you have a responsibility to 600,000 of your fellow Americans to ensure that one of the people who represents you in the Senate isn't actively engaged in violating their basic civil rights.
Call Senator Tester's offices toll-free from Montana at (866) 554-4403.
Billings
Granite Tower
222 N 32nd Street, Suite 102
Billings, MT 59101
Phone: (406) 252-0550
Fax: (406) 252-7768
Bozeman
Avant Courier Building
1 E Main Street, Suite 202
Bozeman, MT 59715
Phone: (406) 586-4450
Fax: (406) 586-7647
Butte
Silver Bow Center
125 W Granite, Suite 200
Butte, MT 59701
Phone: (406) 723-3277
Fax: (406) 782-4717
Glendive
122 W Towne
Glendive, MT 59330
Phone: (406) 365-2391
Fax: (406) 365-8836
Great Falls
119 1st Avenue N, Suite 102
Great Falls, MT 59401
Phone: (406) 452-9585
Fax: (406) 452-9586
Helena
Capital One Center
208 N Montana Avenue, Suite 202
Helena, MT 59601
Phone: (406) 449-5401
Fax: (406) 449-5462
Kalispell
14 Third Street E, Suite 230
Kalispell, MT 59901
Phone: (406) 257-3360
Fax: (406) 257-3974
Missoula
130 W Front Street
Missoula, MT 59802
Phone: (406) 728-3003
Fax: (406) 728-2193
Washington, D.C.
724 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2604
Phone: (202) 224-2644
Fax: (202) 224-8594
Montanans, you've got some phone calls to make.