Two Different Washingtons

Last weekend, a high school friend of mine visited Washington with a couple of his college friends. The friends from college had never been to D.C. before, and as they are all Political Science majors, excitement radiated out of them. Travelling around Washington together, looking at the National Mall, the Monuments, the White House... I watched their education become personified as they recited Supreme Court cases, recounted stories of presidential blunders, and gossiped about various Congressional leaders. It was as if I was stepping into Disneyland... the Political Science major version.

I sometimes forget about this Washington. While my JVC house is active in exploring the city, seeing the Smithsonian museums, biking around the trails that outline the city, and walking the streets exploring the neighborhoods, sometimes I forget that this Washington is the same Washington that has been debating health care for many months now... it is the same Washington that houses the United States' leaders... it is the Washington of tourism, of monuments and memorials, of Congress and of the Supreme Court.

I think this is why the comments of the Political Science majors caught me so off-guard last week. Granted, when I originally came to Washington, D.C., this Washington was the Washington I knew and cannot fault their excitement. Yet, when one kept saying how exciting they were to be there and they wanted to return because of the great things happening nationally, I couldn't help but become a little sensitive and protective of Washington.

The Washington I now know is the Washington of Bread for the City... it is the Washington of the Fair Budget Coalition... the Washington of the $500 million budget deficit... the Washington of Shaw and LeDroit Park and Glover Park and Anacostia... the Washington of my clients.

It is a Washington of increasing inequality. The DC Fiscal Policy Institute recently released a report showing nearly 1 in 5 Washington residents now live in poverty. 11,000 district residents fell into poverty this past year, making the total number of residents in poverty to be 106,500. And... this figure is the federal poverty line, which means that many more District residents continue to struggle each month; they just aren't the official federal poverty level. It's also striking to note that the District's average income for Caucasian residents was $101,000 in 2008 while only $39,000 for African Americans.

The D.C. my friend and his college friends saw is a real Washington. It is a place that most see when they come to D.C., and it's unfair for me to judge their experience as naive or superficial. Yet, it's not the D.C. I see each day. The D.C. I see each day is a D.C. of increasing inequality and poverty. But, the D.C. I see is also one of advocates and clients joining hands to make an impact of poverty, both out on a client level and a social justice level. This D.C. is what keeps me inspired to continue doing the work I do each day. It is the D.C. that continues to help me explore my vocation and look towards making a positive impact on society.

To view the article written by Jenny Reed, DCPFI Policy Analyst, click here.