Name: Sophie Oberstein

Occupation: Corporate Trainer, Author, and Adjunct Professor at New York University 

Hometown: New York, New York

 

Tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you lived in DC?

My husband and I are empty nesters — we moved to DC a few months before the pandemic, so it’s been about four and a half years, although it doesn’t feel like it since it’s been such a strange time to move to a new city. We moved here for my husband’s work, which is in the Virginia suburbs, and my work is portable, so it just made sense to relocate here. One of our children is still in New York City, and one is working as a lift operator in Vail right now. 

 

Why did you decide to move to DC? 

It was entirely because of my husband’s job that we moved to DC. 

 

What do you love most about living in DC?

DC is a beautiful city — a nice walking city. We live in the Logan Circle area. Compared to some other cities, it’s light-filled, it’s clean, and every time you turn a corner, you see an embassy or a monument. The other thing I appreciate, particularly as a transplant, is that it is a destination city, so people come here to visit their children who are in local universities, or they come here for work purposes, and we get to see them.  

 

Could you talk about your own experience being disenfranchised, or in other words, what it has been like to lose the rights you had when you were living in one of the 50 states?

 

It’s very interesting — I appreciate that you’re asking about this experience. Before I moved here, I sort of knew intellectually that DC residents were not represented, and didn’t necessarily have a say in certain things that affect their lives, but I didn’t really experience that at an emotional level — it is a feeling of disenfranchisement as you say — it’s something that’s hard to put into words when you’re just thinking about it, as opposed to living it. 

 

I mean one of the main things that sort of happens every day — because I was politically active in New York, and I had a kind of grassroots group of women who did political actions together — is that I’m still on a lot of mailing lists. Everyday I receive requests to fill out a petition to send to my representatives, and often when I try to sign those petitions, I’ll get a response saying, ‘sorry, we don’t have anybody to send this to,’ because we just flat out don’t have anybody representing us. I mean, there are people who are representing our views, but they don’t have an official vote. We have no vote on how our taxes are spent, even though we pay more federal taxes than people in something like twenty-two other states. 

 

I’ve found that a couple of times since I’ve lived here, there have been incidents where, in other states, a governor could call up the National Guard to protect us, and here in the District, the mayor can’t activate the National Guard in an emergency. And even on a local level, we’ve seen some crime increases in the neighborhood. It’s just related to the fact that some of our criminal cases are held to be prosecuted by federal prosecutors who are quite busy with other things right now, so there are some criminals who return to the streets who might not have been able to in other states. And then on top of that, it’s also ironic because I can see the White House from my corner, and I can see the Washington Monument, so I feel like I’m in the heart of where decisions are made, and yet I’m so removed from it, because I really can’t even walk down and speak to any representatives on my own behalf. And it’s silly things like trying to order items from some websites that have a required field to enter your state but don’t have DC on the list! 

 

What does achieving statehood mean for you?

It just means the citizens of DC — who are citizens of the United States, like anybody else — will get to have a voice. Some of the arguments against this are silly — we have more residents here than there are in some other states, like Vermont and Wyoming. Some of the reasons I’ve heard for not making us a state are either blatantly false or just clearly political. Achieving Statehood is really just about what’s fair. 

 

What do you think needs to be done to get closer to achieving statehood?

I think it really needs to continue to be amplified as a national issue. We residents can ask over and over again, but we don’t get very far. It needs to be citizens in states who have a voice telling their elected leaders that this is an issue that matters to them like any other issue. It’s really keeping a spotlight on it, sharing stories like mine with people who don’t really get what it means on a day-to-day basis.