Editor: 

     Open letter to Mike Livingston, treasurer, Free D.C. Defense Fund:

     Enclosed is my contribution to help Anise Jenkins and Karen Szulgit free D.C. I learned about the abusive relationship between Congress and D.C. while I was in law school there a few years ago.

     I know for example taht the 535-member Congress micro-manages D.C.'s budget and public schools. Wyoming, by comparison, has a single elected superintendent of public instruction, and our state's school system is about the same size as D.C.'s. A 535-member board cannot manage a state-sized school system, even if it has good intentions.

     D.C. citizens pay federal taxes, yet they have no representation in Congress. No one in Wyoming would tolerate taxation without representation. How can Congress subject D.C. to taxation without representation? Doesn't taxation without representation defy our Declaration of Independence?

     Like Wyoming, much of D.C. land is owned by the federal government. Unlike Wyoming, however, D.C. has no congressional delegation to fight for fair property tax payments on the government's land. And Congress will not allow D.C. to maake its own decisions about income taxes and sales taxes. Wyoming cherishes its right to local control, and D.C. has a right to local control too.

     I have read about the upcoming trial of Anise and Karen for allegedly disrupting Congress. According to what I have read, they did nothing but "petition the government for a redress of grievances according to their First Amendment rights.

     If Congress want to run D.C., then they should set aside some time to listen to their D.C. constituents. If I disagree with the federal government, I can speak to my members of Congress. If D.C. citizens have no representatives and senators of their own, they they have a right to address the entire Congress. This is what Anise and Karen did, and if they go to jain for it, we should all be ashamed to call ourselves Americans.

     BERN HAGGERTY, Laramie
     (This letter was edited.)