ABSTRACT
My most recently completed project was a coedited work, with Dr. Toni-Michelle Travis on the District of Columbia, Democratic Destiny and the District of Columbia (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2010). This was a unique project that was brought to me by a group of freshly minted African American PhDs who had worked with me on a leadership conference on the Black economic condition. Eventually, I agreed to edit the project, if Dr. Travis would join, and it became a very productive enterprise that was focused on politics and public policy. That is, the work interrogated, from the perspective of all of the mayoral administrations except the current one, and five selected public policies, to what extent the constitutionally mandated, but strange relationship between the District of Columbia and the Congress has distorted the quality of democracy experienced by the governance of the District and the outcomes for citizens. We conclude that for many reasons, this relationship has been damaging to the just aims of government and must be changed. The initiation of this project was unorthodox inasmuch as authors generally initiate a project, but it was delightful to work with motivated contributors, for whom, except in a couple of cases, this would have been their first publication. In that sense, it was also exceptionally rewarding to myself—and I am sure Dr. Travis–that this project would help launch the careers of several new professors in the discipline of Political Science.
