A Conversation With Joyce Robinson-Paul

On Sunday afternoon, I met Joyce Robinson-Paul. She served our ANC single-member district for several years, until 2004. She lives on N Street NW. When I spoke with other residents in the area, it became clear that there is a lot of respect for her due to all of the things she did for our community.

Currently, Robinson-Paul is running for "Shadow Senator" for the District of Columbia, although she is not fond of the term "shadow." She clearly isn't the type of person who operates in a shadow, particularly when it comes to advocating for statehood for the District.

Robinson-Paul had a lot of things to say about our current ANC commissioners. Notably, she says that ANC 5C has plenty of funds, but no central business office. This strikes her as being ridiculous: "They walk around like nomads with $200,000 in the bank."

She agreed with my assessment that much more must be done to publicize ANC meetings in the community. Robinson-Paul added that at one point local children were paid to deliver the publicity flyers door-to-door, but the ANC discontinued the practice because some people didn't want children to be paid. "You mean they'd rather not teach children the values that result from working for extra spending money?" I asked. "They thought that the children should do it as a part of their civic duty rather than being paid for it," she replied.

Well, it's hard enough to persuade people to show up and vote once every two years, but some people think that children will work for hours every month out of civic duty. There is a gap between what we wish people would do, and what is realistic. What is realistic? The careful use of ANC funds to publicize the meetings to the people the ANC is supposed to serve, while engaging children in activity that teaches work ethic and rewards their efforts. I think we should bring back the flyer distribution program as soon as possible.

(Photo credit: The Common Denominator newspaper)