T he city of Washington — in the District of Columbia — is poised to bid on becoming the newest state in the United States as proposed by a commission of five panel members.
What is unique about the District of Columbia is that it is the only place where you can be in the continental United States and yet not be located in any of the 50 states.
District of Columbia to Become the Newest State — and Its New Name Would Be…?
If you take a look at the official license plate of the city of Washington, you will see the line Taxation Without Representation at the bottom. This is because residents pay taxes to the federal government of the United States despite not having anyone in the House of Representatives to — well — represent them.
Should the District of Columbia become state number 51, that would mean representation for residents — not to mention the first time in almost 58 years that a new state was added to the United States, which means that the design of the flag would have to be changed…
…and it would also mean that the name District of Columbia would have to be changed as well. The proposed new name would be New Columbia — which was approved by voters back in 1982 during a referendum which was part of an earlier campaign for statehood — but the name Columbia was in honor of Christopher Columbus, who has been associated with the decimation of people who were native to the North American continent.
Other names have been tossed about — such as Anacostia, Douglass Commonwealth and Potomac and Douglass Commonwealth, according to this article written by Fenit Nirappil of The Washington Post. “Those who detest ‘New Columbia’ will get an opportunity to lobby for a different name in the fall, when the D.C. Council holds hearings on the draft constitution before bringing it before voters as a ballot question in November.”
Summary
There is apparently a race as to which region, district or territory will become the next state of the United States first — the District of Columbia; the proposed state of Jefferson; the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where 61 percent of its citizens voted in a referendum in support of the financially-strapped island to become a state in 2012; or Cascadia, as inferred by Alvin, who is a reader of The Gate…
…and those are only four possible candidates for statehood. There are more.
For this article, I have decided to refrain from opining. Rather, I would like to hear from you: if the District of Columbia does become a state, what should be its name?
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
