Bipeds of Brookland: Josh Burch

Posted by Abbott Klar Real Estate on Thursday, June 30th, 2016 at 8:25pm

Bipeds of Brookland: Josh Burch
Josh Burch: DC Statehood

Josh Burch is a DC Statehood advocate who was born in DC. He moved to Brookland when he was ten months old. He went to Ghana as a Peace Corps volunteer and met his wife, another volunteer. In 2002, he bought the house next to the one where he grew up, and he now works for DC, managing restoration projects for our many streams that are in are in poor health.  “Brookland is just a beautiful neighborhood. Because of my work in the environmental field, I see the number of green spaces and the way people take care of their yards …  There is a consciousness about the environment that people in Brookland have that I love.”

Josh became involved with the DC Statehood movement in 2011.  “My daughter was a few months old and I thought, ‘I’ve lived under this unjust system my whole life and I haven’t done anything about it. Let me try to do something so that when she turns 18 she has a meaningful vote.’”

Under the Brookland Neighborhood Civic Association, he founded a committee on DC Statehood which grew to include people from outside Brookland and became Neighbors United for DC Statehood. “We would go to members of Congress who were friends of the District and they would say, ‘We’ve never had a district citizen come in and advocate for statehood.’… If people can give us five minutes a month to work on statehood, or five hours, we’ll give them something productive to do.”

“I actually think statehood is a lot closer than most people think. . . because more people are starting to believe that it can happen. . . The more we get to talk to people, the more people say, ‘Wow that’s fundamentally wrong.’ And once we start making that connection with people and start talking about how statehood isn’t special treatment, it’s just equal treatment, it’s really easy to convince people.”

Josh is optimistic. “I do think within the next ten years we will have a vote on statehood in the House and Senate and it’s going to pass.”

 

Bipeds of Brookland: A weekly series introducing the people who make Brookland their home, one step at a time. Interview and photo by Tom Sabella.

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